Of Broken Wings and Fractured Flight
by Void.of.the.Apocalypse
Summary: Remake of 'Of Broken Bones and Wings'. When Death comes rolling down her hill, she though it would be the last time she saw life. Not only did Death decide to ruin her chance at happiness, it also ruined how she perceived things. It only occurs to her that this is a second chance when she gives someone their very own second chance. No set pairings, Kaguya!SI-OC. M FOR VIOLENCE
1. Where Things End and Where Things Begin

The sound and feeling of her throat tearing itself is the only thing that she hears and feels for the last few days of her life; the rising fever and wild body temperatures often times leaving her hallucinating and drunk. She remembers much of her life, lying there in her hot bed, uncomfortable and itching, crying when she realizes that she's on her own, laughing in joy as she realizes that her mother now gets the hint of dislike; it can go on. When she finally sees herself to the hospital, though, it's almost too late, but they keep her there and call her closest relative - her mother who doesn't even show.

Her mother takes it too far. At least _she_ showed up when her mother was diagnosed with skin cancer, helped with the funds as needed.

It isn't the first time she got sick, but this is the last time.

Death - like fate and life and love - is a fickle thing. It is ever changing, it's loyalty only remaining to itself and itself only. Death is different for everyone, it's fickle, it's the end of life, it's the beginning of itself. It never has an ending, only a beginning.

She went somewhere, she knows that much, and she knows that she is as conscious as conscious can get. She remembers a lot of things, like that she couldn't see for one, and moving is hard until later on, and her hearing is the only thing she could rely on as her nose seemingly lost its purpose. If things get worse, she would cry if she knew how to. But, overall, things seemed to get better as time went on. She is able to move around, she heard a lot of noises, and she felt like she is at home - at a home that wanted her there.

It's so nice to feel those things again, the welcoming hum of life, the warmth of love. Maybe she is going somewhere, to paradise, where she can be assured that she is loved and cherished. Maybe she is finally going to be at rest again.

The feeling can only last so long, she knows that much. It has to end eventually. It has to end or she would know something is wrong, that they all seem to become faker and faker as time goes on.

When the time finally comes for her happiness to end she is thrown into a blinding light, drafts everywhere and temperatures almost as cold as a witch's left tit. There are gigantic movement that shakes her into an oblivion and she cries.

She _hurts_.

She doesn't _know_ where she _is_.

She wants it _all_ to _end_.

It _hurts_.

 _It hurts._

* * *

Her long dormant senses are assaulted when the pain stops, and she is handled roughly from one mass to another. Her vision is blurry, but her ears are much more sensitive than the last time she used them. When the movements stop she hears someone say something, something in a voice that is almost loving, almost adoring, almost _there_.

The activity has calmed down enough that she can tell that there is a warm blanket around her, that she's placed on something large and almost fatty. She grasps at what she's laying on and realizes that they're a silky material, and when she digs her hand into it it actually feels like human fat, warm and pillow-y.

She doesn't know where she is, how she got there(other than that she died, obviously), and she doesn't know what to do. If she waited long enough will she know what's going on?

What felt like a year was actually a month, and in the month she starts to see a lot of things. Things like her situation. She realizes that she's been placed in the body as some Japanese girl in what looks like feudal Japan. It's not what she thought would happen. She thought that she would go to heaven or hell; not this _purgatory_.

Whatever this place is, she's not sure she likes it. There is this almost constant human howling outside her door, bodies being slammed into the ground, loud and inane and insane chortling.

It's hell in this purgatory.

She's no longer sure this is purgatory, but as some form of hell. She knew death is fickle, but she didn't know hell is the same.

And when she sees that her ' _father_ ' begins to disappear at odd times of the day and night and her ' _mother's_ ' jaded look in her eyes she sees that this is no longer hell nor purgatory nor heaven; this is life again.

There are so, so many things that could have happened, and being _reborn_ , being reincarnated, _living_ again, is not one of them. She just…

She just wants it _all_ to _end_.

But she knows it won't unless she dies of disease(because they are so, _so_ far behind in medical care), or raid(because they are so, _so_ far behind in history), or even murder(because this is the past, _anything_ is possible. You've raised cattle for their village? Off with the head. Off with the families heads).

The life that she used to have is now useless. She wanted to get a good job, to have a nice home and live all by herself where no one can tell her what to do. It's never going to happen, though, and she knows it.

When the time comes she knows she'll get what she wants, because she's had enough of this shit, of this nonsense and this irrationality. Why can't she get what she wants? Why can't she even attempt at it? She's been so _patient_ , so fucking _meek_ , waiting and _waiting_ for her desires to come - but they come first, they get what they want before hers; she just doesn't understand anymore.

Through dirt and dust, blood and misery, loss and depression, she's done everything that she can to stay alive and please. She's so, _so_ tired, so, _so_ depressed, so, so _fucking confused._

Why.

 _Why_.

It all doesn't make sense, and why give her another chance to live when she's already been beaten down to serve and to respect. Why even give her a second chance. Who thought it fun to give something broken to be beautiful again when broken things look ugly and don't exactly fit right when fixed. It makes _no_ sense.

Something outside her room moves. Something like feet shuffling. It sounds heavy, drunk. Maybe with exhaustion, maybe intoxicated. Whatever it is, she hoped the former.

Her mother sleeps in a room over, thin walls separating them. The woman in an infant's body feels hot tears coming, and feels ashamed. What would happen if she made a noise? Would her mother wake up to confirm the noises for her? Would the intruder back off? Or would it kill her and her mother?

Hot tears edge in her vision, and she swears she can her some more shuffling. She's not sure whether to let loose or not. Her body becomes uncomfortably warm, and large beads of sweat mixed tears trail down her fatty cheeks.

Is it possible for her to just… go back to sleep? To forget about this? Hopefully this is never going to happen again, maybe it's her sensitive and young mind that's doing this to her.

This time the floors squeak.

This time she lets it all out.

She doesn't remember what happens next, as her cries and wails are clearly heard and her mother comes. Her mother picks her up and rocks her, singing a hushed lullaby and whispering what can only be her name.

 _Tsukiko_.

* * *

Days can go by without her realizing it, confusing an event that happened two weeks ago and thinking it happened yesterday, or thinking that what happened yesterday happened four days ago. It's something that is not linear, acting up every few months or so, or just not appearing for almost a year.

Or what feels like a year, anyway.

At the tender age of three she's placed into tests, tests which involve some pretty… cruel things. Things like martial arts, the kind that involves kill or be killed situations. The sensei is a rough man, rugged in almost every sense.

Her mother doesn't seemed too concerned at the vigorous and violent and often times _fatal_ fighting style. She, in fact, looks quite pleased, like the cat ate the canary kind of pleased, with the soft expression in her eyes and the small smirk on her lips.

It makes the three year old woman-child worried. Her mother never held that expression before - the present nor the past.

When she did ask why her mother is so happy, she got the oddest reply.

"Because then I will know that you are safe, that no one will take advantage of you."

Not only is it cryptic, it is also almost out of character. Her mother is a typical woman; quiet, soft spoken, does almost all the household chores, listens to her husband like he is god - the typical.

But she digresses.

Her mother can be pleased with her for any reason, whether for the way she fights the older boys and sometimes girls to her helpful cooking and even garden work. Tsukiko loves to have someone pleased with her work, but she knows that something will happen and she will hate it as much as being forced to please others.

Tsukiko loves it when morning comes, because that's when she gets the most attention from her mother, and sometimes even her father. The mornings are filled with stern looked that mean well(as well as high expectations to fulfill duties and a general expectation to rule over the rings in the inordinate spars). When the afternoon comes around she is expected to her her mother prepare the food- although it only takes an hour or so, so then she still has enough time to check out the unexplored places of her clan's small territory.

She has already seen what the older kids can do, and for some reason it reminds her of something that must be very important, because her head begins to throb every time she sees those boys spar for their lives, how their traditional clothes dance in the wind, how their hair reminds her of a boy she must have known before. It's so odd knowing that you know something, but can't remember where you know it from.

Weeks later she sees a man(a young man, she has to remind herself) with the whitest hair and the typical red markings above his eyebrows(but he had the oddest red bags under his eyes, and they are actually the same kind of markings as the ones on his forehead). He is so beautiful that she could feel it in her chest.

And then it all just _snapped_.

Tsukiko feels like crying. How could she forget? How could she not see the crazed grins on their faces, the traditional hair style, the markings, the teachings of _chakra and martial arts._ She feels so stupid, how did she forget? It was- it is in her face all the fucking time, from the moment she was born(the wild cheers in the background, the calloused hands holder her tiny body), the moment she realized this is life again(her parents markings, stark against the paleness of their skin), even when she turned three(the unique fighting style, her mother's pride, her own _white hair_ ).

The only ones with that power, with the shikotsumyaku, have noticeably white hair. She has white hair. She has the shikotsumyaku. So does a few of her other sparmates.

But... isn't the shikotsumyaku a rare kekkei genkai? Isn't it so rare that… that Kimimaro was one of the first in generations to wield the power?

Whatever happened must have devastated the clan that it caused its extinction. But that still doesn't tell her anything about the sudden inflation of bone wielding children, nor does it tell much about their long deserved but sudden disappearance in the shinobi world.

But that doesn't really matter much. What matters is the fact that she's in the _fucking Narutoverse._

* * *

 _Edited_

 _Well, this just happened. This is the most I can give right now, and the next chapter is expected in probably four or five days. I've been setting a strict schedule for myself about writing a thousand words a day, so that should help on the fact that I want approx. 5k for each chapter._


	2. Where Things Die and Where Things Learn

As much as she loved the anime _Naruto_ , she doesn't appreciate living in it. There is death everywhere, and when she means _everywhere_ , she means it. Now her eyes have opened she sees a lot of things, from the way her mother walks like a tiger on the hunt, to how her father snarls at the mention of brave warriors who can defeat him, even how the students _power_ over everything they come across. It doesn't matter how she sees things, if she looked through a prism she'd still see aggression and hunger to win, the fervent desires to control.

And she still doesn't understand why. Why the _Kaguya_? Why _her_? How is this even _possible_?

No matter what formulas she concocts, no matter how many theories she tries to create, it still doesn't come together. Tsukiko has seen a lot of things already, in this life and the past, and nothing seems to fit together in a common sense. She's so exhausted it's ridiculous; it's not her typical depression.

It's not her.

When she passes her withering grandmothers and grandfathers on the streets all she sees is the battle worn veterian, the exhausted eyes of someone _far_ beyond their years, the hunches and limps of old battle scars.

There is absolutely nothing she can do to help herself in a situation like this, she can't call it a hoax since she's never had a run in with hallucinations before, she can't call it a simulator because absolutely _nothing_ can describe how detailed this is, how advanced this is for her time, she can't call it anything other than _reality_.

* * *

"Kaa-chan, how are you?" Tsukiko asks on a rainy day. It's always raining here, and when it's not it's snowing, and when it's not it's as chilly as a wizard's heart. "You look cold." Speaking with her four year old vocabulary is hard, but also easy at the same time. The hard part is playing dumb. And pronouncing words as well. The easy part is reading and writing.

"I am fine, darling, don't you worry about me." She says in a gloomy voice, obviously depressed. "It's just, I-" Her mother sounds so desperate, as if she wanted to tell her something important. "Never mind."

"I'm always going to be here for you, you know." Tsukiko mutters, and attempts to wrap her short arms around her mother's waist, trying to sound supportive. Her childish voice is high, but lower than most of her peers, as she knew how to use her voice way before any of them ever could.

"Yes, I know, little moon, but I think I made a mistake. A big one. One I know I cannot reverse."

"What did you do?"

It is a question, really, but, she has to admit, it came out more like a statement, like a command. This catches the attention of her mother, whose forest green eyes darken with questions. Tsukiko is sure her mother is already questioning her.

"I made a deal I no longer want." Is her mother's only answer to the pseudo-question.

"Oh." What is there to say, really? There isn't much, and Tsukiko can feel her attention being ripped away from her mother to a gaggle of children outside their home. It is so odd having such a short attention span, and being almost four makes it all the worse. It used to be memories melding into each other, now it's about being unable to hold a decent conversation with someone without getting sidetracked. She should have known this was going to happen.

But what will happen in the future? Will her mental stability be strong enough to hold like that of an adult? Or will she just have boundless energy and… and..

What else is there to being young? To being a child? Tsukiko's never raised one before in the past life; she never planned on it. She never took into consideration of what child rearing is actually like, she never really thought of it other than now, actually…

And even if she did, she's damn sure she would've hated it.

"Tsukiko, are you alright?" Her mother mutters almost silently.

How long has she been thinking?

"You look like you've seen a ghost. What's wrong?"

"Nothing, mother." Tsukiko says, because what else is she supposed to say? That she is recollecting memories that probably shouldn't exist? That she knows the future and somewhat doesn't care about the lives that are going to be made and lost and feeling guilty about it?

There is silence for a long moment, and Tsukiko can hear her mother breathing, realizing she has yet to look at her mother. She glances upwards and winces, now feeling the overbearing looks her mother gives her. Her mother's black hair is up in the traditional Kaguya style, two small bell looking chunks of hair at the side of her face, and the rest being divided in a zigzag pattern that is bundled up at the back of the head, creating an articulate three bun style.

Her own hair style is somewhat similar, if not more familiar than the formal her mother wears. The typical zigzag that separates her hair is still there, as if it's almost a mandatory clan hair-do. She feels like the real Ootsutsuki Kaguya.

The fact her mother is actually looking at her with that look makes her worried; is her mother going to scold her? Is she going to get into trouble because she doesn't look presentable?

Her mother only smiles softly, loving her daughters shy look. "I love your hair like that." She says, shocking Tsukiko. "It makes you look _ethereal_. Like a goddess."

Tsukiko hums in acknowledgment, anxieties being shoved off her chest by the warm sensation of pride and something akin to _care_ ; maybe even _love_ , but she doesn't want to push anything. She smiles up to her mother, baby fat making her cheeks large and chin small, her pale green eyes sparkling and little button nose scrunched up as her cheeks widen.

The older woman smiles widely at her daughter, the dormant muscles stretching as far as they can go; _this is for her daughter, her little snowflake._ She has never smiled this much, not even when she realized she was pregnant; not even when she saw she had a little girl.

The mother-daughter duo stare at eachother for a sadly short moment, before Tsukiko's mother turns around to tend to preparing the food. Today she hasn't asked Tsukiko to help her cook, which is as odd as her mother feeling down or compliment her daughter's hair choice.

Today has been the day of miracles.

Tsukiko stands behind her mother awkwardly, not knowing what to do or where to go. She grasps at her mother's yukata, small hands twisting around the material and fiddling around with it. When her mother turns her head around to look at her with something soft in her eyes does Tsukiko stop, feeling shy again like it's the first day of highschool.

"You're so cute, do you realize that?" Her mother mutters again, voice soft and almost cracking. "I wish I could turn back time to st-" She cuts herself off, looking down with a depressive expression on her face, tears brimming at her eyes. " _I am so sorry._ "

"It's alright, kaa-chan."

Her mother sheds a tear then.

* * *

The shikotsumyaku is built to enhance the strength of the user, along with some other notable advancements. The white hair is a common thing, along with the often pale white skin and green eyes. Their natural red markings stark against the white background.

When Tsukiko catches wind of the common effect the shikotsumyaku has, she feels alone and scared again.

Since the bones and tissues are constantly at work, the chakra empowering their ability to produce where ever on and in the body at any time, the chances of them backfiring on the person is high. Bone tumors are a common occurrence but a mostly unknown side effect of the shikotsumyaku. Most of the time they are harmless, as the shikotsumyaku takes care of the possibility of fractures and sometimes the swelling, but they still happen when the user is young and new to the ability.

Deaths by the tumors are left a mystery. Superstitious parents say that there has to be a curse for the blessing, that it's natural for this to happen.

One of Tsukiko's playmates who was her age, Akira, who also wielded the shikotsumyaku, who activated it at a fairly young age, went missing for a few months. Tsukiko loved Akira dearly, and missed her very much when she went for a ' _vacation_ ', as her parents lightly put it.

And when Akira came back she was thin, thinner than before. Her once wild white hair lay limp against her skull and she was always tired at the time. Her left arm almost useless.

When asked what she did, Akira simply stated that she was training, but had to be laid off for her health issues.

Tsukiko knew what was happening to Akira, but said nothing. She was no doctor and surely couldn't do something like that to a young friend. So she sat and watched as her friend stopped coming over to play, to talk.

It was a depressing situation for Tsukiko, she knew she could've helped, but she has absolutely no medical knowledge on how to do a procedure with a high mortality rate. She could've done something, but didn't because she knew nothing.

She could've save a friend but she did nothing. Not even visit Akira at her deathbed.

* * *

Tsukiko is surrounded by her younger clansmen, mostly boys as by this stage in their training is the girls are being pulled away to be trained to learn about childbearing and raising. There are five other girls in the group of twenty five, and four out of those five girls wield the shikotsumyaku.

Out of all of the other children, regardless of kekki genkai, though, she is the tallest; maybe even the thinnest if someone looked hard enough.

She adorns the usual beige and weathered yukata, as is everyone else. Her white hair is not the only one, as, like she said, there are other children with the bone moulding abilities. Out of the twenty five children, six of them have the white hair, but only two of them are boys. One of the boys is Oyu, a boy her mother is very fond of. Tsukiko understands her mother was going to arrange their marriage before it was suddenly dropped off the face of the earth.

Tsukiko wonders why. Not why the drop of the marriage, but why are there more women with the shikotsumyaku than the men. Is the gene something that had to do with the chromosomes, like being born color blind? Or is this just a coincidence?

Whatever it means, she'll have to delve into in later, especially when she has to defeat these upperclassmen boys. _Who_ are her teachers to think a _four_ year old has the capabilities to defeat an _eleven_ year old? There is a _six_ year difference(it's an estimation, but they do look about eleven years old to her), there is also a _huge_ difference in the fact she hasn't yet formed all the necessary muscles to take someone who is not only taller than her, but someone who can possible weigh twice or even three times her size.

Out of all of the children she's seen, the one chosen to be her partner looked the best fed. It's like his parents signed him up for eating contests ever since he was her age, and even then it's hard to believe someone like him has managed to keep all that weight. Almost half, if not all, of the Kaguya members are underfed, nothing but bones and muscle and sheer ambition to fight and conquer. Seeing his fatty body, how chubby his arms are, how much chub has grown on his stomach, and the roundness of his face makes Tsukiko think of who he might be.

Whoever he is he might as well just be some child of someone high up, but Tsukiko thought the only high up in the Kaguya clan is the head, who, from the last she heard, only has a son who is almost ten years old and a wife who died in childbirth; lending him unable to find another spouse and heir. And even then, she's sure the son of the head would have enough on his platter from training and learning how to take care of an oiled killing machine that's called the Kaguya clan.

And even then, it's unlikely the _heir_ to the _clan_ would play around with a bunch of toddlers and such.

But that doesn't really matter now; what matters is the gaggle of brats she's surrounded with. They're being picked off, one by one, chosen carefully to be pitted against another child. Tsukiko sees a few children, mostly the shikotsumyaku ones, being pared off with older, much older children, children in their early teens already. They're being picked off sporadically, and she's one of the last children to be assigned a partner.

He is a pretty cute boy by her nigh thirty years of life. But not her type, as, you know, she's _thirty_. Tsukiko isn't a pedophile. He _has_ to be eleven, at least.

He's tall, way taller than her. Naturally, it would've been an unfair fight, as her has the height, the weight, the knowledge, the _experience_ ; and she feels as if the proctors had a little too much time on their hands to concoct something of this calibre.

The boy avoids all formalities at all costs, acting a little out of place and maybe a little shy. His eyes says something about the water, like he's seen it in action before, like he knows what it feels, how it moves, when it moves. He's a strong one, she's sure, but doesn't look all that smart when he clearly favors his right leg. And it looks like it's his favored leg as well, told by the shakiness of his left knee.

Tsukiko feels confident on her wit, maybe even her analytical skills, but her physical strength is definitely something to laugh at. In her defense, though, she is only four. And basically a starved dog. And a crazy mess in stressful situations.

Although he's seen a lot in his obvious short years, he waits for her, one of Tsukiko's big no-no's. She doesn't like making the first move, as he doesn't play any threat to her at the moment, and, afterall, he's the one with the experience, why throw all of the responsibility on her? She's not sure if she's even standing right.

What foot is supposed to go in the front? She's ambiguous, so does it really matter? What if there's some sort of formal sparring technique to let the opponent know that this is nothing but a spar? Is there even such a thing?

Tsukiko inhales for a long moment, and breaths out.

She and the boy have long since gotten in the bloody ring, rotting logs the only indicator of their limited space. Tsukiko feels threatened; her body temperature rising at a steady and uncomfortable rate.

The boy's in a croutch that she's seen other children her age use, so she mimics him, staying as low as she can. Her hands are up, shoulders lax. She's not confident with her physical body, but she hopes to make an impression; although she isn't too sure on his intentions yet. Who knows if he wants to kill her or is just doing this to get it done with. Tsukiko supposes there isn't much a difference between the two points she's just stated as he is a Kaguya and so is she.

The proctor shouts out a short and loud ' _fight_ ' and Tsukiko remains still, waiting for the older boy to come at her, realizing now that this fight is being watched, not like those spars that are set by the students. He doesn't look hesitant, though annoyed. She can see it in his eyes.

A moment passes, and Tsukiko can see the annoyance increase faster and faster each breath she takes. Not long after the realization of how pissed off he looks, his feet are already off the ground.

Since they were placed almost five feet away from each other, he takes a leap, face forming into a sneer that could easily be placed as a snarl. Tsukiko can feel her adrenaline racing through her veins, heart rattling inside her chest.

The boy starts off with a high kick, coming down on her from above. She is too slow and his heel connects to her shoulder. Tsukiko growls in pain, later forming into a small scream. She makes sure to not make the same mistake again.

For someone with that kind of fat he sure is fast. She would have pegged him for being the rock, not the wind.

Tsukiko is slow to make a move, and she realizes that her adrenaline is making her this way. Her bones rattle in excitement and in fear. She's seeing through tunnel vision and Tsukiko realizes her hearing is almost gone, replaced with a frightening buzzing. A foot enters her side vision and she dodges.

She makes a mistake with her footing and fall on her ass, and vibrations course through her body. The fall hurts, and her tailbone feels as if someone just stabbed it. It's not a pleasant feeling.

When the boy comes at her again she sees an amazing amount of anger and scorn in his eyes, and she sees how belligerent he actually is. It's an odd concept to see someone so small with so much hate, but she digresses.

He comes at her with his arm out, hand in a tight fist. The other children in the other sparring rings are already falling down, and a few scream.

Tsukiko dodges aptly from his punch, and adds one of her own, aiming for his soft stomach that almost sucks in her fist. She's surprised at this; he has much more stomach fat than she anticipated. With the kind of force that she hit him with there surely will be a bruise where she punched.

A grunt escapes his mouth, and Tsukiko understands that he is nothing shy of a _baby_ , that she just _hit_ him. She just _hit_ a _child_.

Feeling guilty about what she did, she hesitates on her next move, shuttering in mid swing for a punch.

He uses this to his advantage, pushing her arm away from him to punch her in the throat. She tries to drop down, but he still hits her, hitting her on an eye.

Tsukiko doesn't focus on that though, and feels him overpower her suddenly and she's kicked to the ground. She grunts harshly, feeling something get knocked around inside her. Her bones ache, and she feels cold terror drain into her veins.

He could _kill_ her, this _child_ could _kill_ her.

Her eyes widen and she feels tears leak out, not liking the trepidation. Tsukiko fears the moment his hand comes down on her.

She dodges, her fear making his movements seem slow. He doesn't seem pleased with that, so he lets out a shout of fury and makes a series of blows to her, but her anxieties force her to roll out of the way, she is still on the ground.

He comes down on her again, and the tightness of her lungs, the sweat coating her skin, the trembling bones makes her _freeze_. Tsukiko sees his hand in a very tight fist, his chub covering his full strength.

With a force she's never felt before, Tsukiko pushes herself back one more time. Her head throbs, but she stands again.

The ground sways beneath her, so she widens her stance, feet aligned with her shoulders, and the belligerent boy stands a few feet in front of her. Tsukiko can taste blood, and sees some dripping from his lips. A cruel smirk blooms on her face, and she looks down.

She has taken the most damage from the both of them, and she feels this _urge_ to bring justice to herself. It came like a _wave_ of _ambition_ , that feeling you get when you win a game of monopoly, or when you beat a friend in a game of spar or sass. The power is _strong_ , _empowering_ , and instead of the frigid fear in her blood she has it is replaced with hot adrenaline that feels like _burning sludge_ in her veins.

It almost takes her by surprise, but who is she to deny the opportunity to defeat the undefeatable.

 _It's not defeating the undefeatable if he can be defeated ,_ something whispers in the back of her mind. _It's not justice if there was no injustice done._

Tsukiko feels the power thrum through her veins again, and, as if she's being possessed, throws a fist at him, overpowering him with the intent to _hit_ and to _break_ and to _kill_ andto _miam_ and _to destroy._

She doesn't remember much after that.

* * *

When she comes to she sees that she is standing above the boy. The proctors are yelling. She is covered in blood. His blood.

She looks down at her hands, the sanguine liquid that came from his body is hot, and Tsukiko can feel bile running up her throat. What happened? Why are the proctors so hyped up? Why are they pushing her to the ground?

The dust of the cold ground speeds up threw her nose and mouth as she gasps, trying to get the bigger man off of her back. He shouts incoherent things to her. Vomit rides up her throat.

The back of her beige yukata is suddenly being tugged at, and she's lifted in the air.

"You have killed the heir to the position of the head of the Kaguya clan!" He shouts, spit fly at her face. She winces at the noise. He shakes her. "How dare you! You shall pay with your life!"

Tsukiko doesn't really hear him, the blood in her ears flowing and her face wet with sweat and maybe blood. The man shakes her some more and she's thrown to the ground. Her head hits the floor and she feels an open wound there. She forces the vomit back, but she knows she can't stop everything.

She stays on the ground for what feels like an eternity, but someone kicks her on the side - hard. With tears filling her eyes, they drip to the ground slowly, and she whimpers. Tsukiko doesn't understand what going on. She doesn't understand the gibberish coming from the man's mouth.

Soon enough she is being held again, this time by her small and possibly fragile wrists. He shakes her and she opens her eyes to see a different man. She's seen him around before, she thinks, but it isn't him.

Her eyes dash towards the child's dead body and now understands where she has seen him.

 _She_ just killed his _son_. His _only_ son.

Her eyes widen, and she feels the salty tears mix with the burning blood from her temple. She feels guilt riding up her back, and more tears in her eyes. Letting out a sob, she drops her head, dizziness taking over.

The world rocks as she's dropped on the ground, Tsukiko's heavy body lying limp. The hand picks her up from the back of her neck, and she's forced to look at the father of the child she just killed.

He looks pleased. Too pleased.

* * *

Tsukiko can remember her mother apologizing over nothing, only days before her accident.

 _'I am so sorry.'_

It's like she did something wrong. Like she didn't mean to.

Whatever she did, Tsukiko found out the hard way.

"It didn't go the way I wanted it to, but at least I now know who is stronger." The man, the father of the child she killed, the leader of the clan, _Takeo_ says "But you did kill my only son. My only heir. So, in compensation, your mother has long agreed that you should now be raised under my wing; like a second father, an uncle, if you will."

Her mother has _long agreed_? Was this preplanned? Did they actually put the heir up to a fight that could not be won just to get him killed and then adopt a shikotsumyaku wielder?

But, everyone knew he was the stronger opponent, the boy knew he was no fool, that she, a four year old girl, up against a ten year old boy, would lose almost immediately. And there are other children with the power, and they're much more formidable children.

She's lying in the hard ground, on her back and hands resting on her stomach. The scent of dried blood is prominent in the air. Tsukiko feels the bile rising up in her throat; she twists over to vomit her pitiful lunch. The acid burns her throat and mouth, tears prickle the sides of her eyes.

Cold hands push bloody and white hair out of her face, callouses prominent on his fingertips. He croons something Tsukiko doesn't quite catch, and pushes her back onto her back. His hand combs through her hair, and she looks up at him to see a toothy grin. She shudders, looking away.

When he is done with the grooming does he finally back off, gesturing for her to sit up. Tsukiko does sits up, but feeling the cold drafts and the hot acidic stench of her vomit makes her curl into her own lap, covering her mouth. She wants to gurgle an apology, but something in the back of her mind tells her not to, she has no reason to be sorry.

Takeo kneels in front of her, a smirk adorning his face and dark green eyes gleaming in the dark light.

Tsukiko realizes she isn't anywhere familiar, that she isn't in her bloodied and tattered clothes any more. Instead, she's in a cold room that looks like it was carved from stone, slick walls dripping with water, and her beige clothing has been replaced with a silvery yukata and a red obi. The clothing is as cold as the room, but it's rough texture creates some warmth.

"The clothing used to belong to an older woman who had no children, so she graciously gave it to you." Takeo says, grasping her long sleeve this time. "You should be feeling grateful she even looks your way after killing the heir. You should also feel grateful there is another one coming on it's way." His smirk morphs into a wide grin that bares his yellowing and chipped teeth. Tsukiko recoils from his direction, a hand covering her eyes.

Pain soft blooms from her face as she remembers the hits she's taken; her right eye is puffy, she doesn't see much out of it, and her left temple feels as if it's been stabbed. She is also having issues moving her right shoulder up after that kick Takeo's son gave her. She whimpers in pain.

"Like I said, your mother has long since agreed that you'll pay for my son's death. What you did is common; it isn't the first time. But Yuuguremaru is my _only son_." Takeo says, voice low and intimidating to her young ears. "And the unborn is a mystery. We didn't plan it, but it happened, so be glad you were graciously saved once more by someone you'll never meet."

Tsukiko hums an acknowledgement, letting her hands fall to her lap. _Yuuguremaru_ was his name… and she killed him. But, he is _eleven_ , who the hell was his teacher? Who neglected their duty as a sensei to teach about fighting and and defeating the opponent?

Who ever it is, Tsukiko's glad she wasn't his kohai.

Looking down at the ground, Tsukiko feels as if she's going to break. What is going on? Who is the one planning all of this shit? Why is she even here to begin with? What happened when she blacked out?

Did Takeo _threaten_ her? Who does he think he is?

She inhales, feeling her eyebrows lower and eyes close. With one last question ringing through her ears, she sighs, opening her eyes again to look Takeo in the face. "Why am I here?" She demands. "I don't know why I'm here. Where am I."

There is a spark of curiosity that flashes past his eyes for a moment, and Tsukiko thinks it's because of the mostly monotone voice she used. "This is the cave system we've always used to train the shikotsumyaku users. You're here because you're one of them."

Tsukiko looks at him with weary eyes. More questions pass through her mind, and the sudden urge to speak her mind makes her stiffen up. She doesn't want to say those questions. They feel too personal, too objective, too serious for a four year old girl.

Instead, she asks something that she's not sure she even wants to ask."Can I see my kaa-chan?"

Takeo's grin fades a little, but it's his eyes show a little more warmth than when she first saw him. He doesn't answer for a heartbeat, looking at her like he is looking at her soul for something Tsukiko doesn't know about. "You can. But I'm not sure if she'll want to see you."

Why wouldn't her mother not want to see her? Is she really distraught about her little moon killing someone?

As if she spoke her mind, Takeo snorts. "Chie knows what it's like being a Kaguya, she's not disappointed by that, but she doesn't want to see you because you are now - and please ignore my lack of better words - the Kaguya weapon."

…

 _What?_

"The other children have not reached the stage you have, girl, they have yet to activate the shikotsumyaku they were born with. Don't worry, you won't be alone, once they do you will have the chance to learn with them." Takeo says, like he didn't say that she is now a weapon, a tool that can and will be disposed of once it's dull and useless.

There is absolutely nothing she can say, nothing she can do. Tsukiko is at a stopping point. Where is she going to go now? What is she going to do?

Tsukiko hopes that she'll live long enough to be an adult again. She doesn't want to die in a young body that doesn't belong to her.

She doesn't want to die in a clan full of psychopathic _freaks_.

* * *

 _Chie is Tsukiko's mother. Yuuguremaru is Takeo's only son. Takeo is the head of the clan. Akira is Tsukiko's dead friend. Oyu was going to be Tsukiko's future husband._

 _Everyone right now are my own characters, and the bone tumor/cancer is my own making, along with the activating thing, and I'm still iffy about the clan head even existing. Maybe I'll do something about that in the next chapter. idk what I'm doing to the seasons. I'm not sure if they're going to exist at all until later when Tsukiko isn't so fucking depressed and woeful. She already has a motivational factor, along with some theories to the high population rate of shikotsumyaku users, but that'll be more detailed in the next chapter._

 _Original word count is 5,223._


	3. Where Things Fall and Where Things Stay

**Warning; child abuse, child fighting, swearing, blood, etc.**

* * *

Blood drips down from her mouth, exhaustion clear in her dulled gaze. Her Sempai beats her down once more. This time she stays down.

Chokichi-sempai stands over Tsukiko, his loose white hair a mess and blood drips from his nose. He glowers at her. His nose used to be straight, slightly turned up, but with the last spar he just had with Tsukiko, it is now rather wavy, broken. Chokichi-sempai isn't one for his looks, but there _is_ a limit.

Tsukiko managed to hit him at least once, and that one time hurt. When she landed the punch to his face he pushed her away with such force that her head hit the compacted dirt, making the world spin where she lays. It isn't everyday that she gets to spar with a sempai, but Tsukiko tries to make the best of it.

"Get up." Chokichi-sempai spits, his seven year old voice thin and almost childish. Tsukiko would laugh at him for having such a voice if they were not in a situation like this. She would blame her own high voice and he would probably kill her. It's daunting knowing that a _seven year old baby could and would kill another baby._ "You need to practice on your speed. Uh, you hit too hard, which is good, I guess, and your balance doesn't need much improvement, either."

The girl would've crowed in happiness after his mostly positive words for her, but she's not too sure about the formalities here. She has yet to see someone her age, and even then everyone acts as if they have a stick up their ass, acting like they have better things to do. Tsukiko wonders if it was like this for Akira.

 _Akira_. Tsukiko still tears up at the name.

Tsukiko finally stands up, dusting off her only yukata after she arrived here. The silver one that was donated from that supposed old lady. Her red obi even more stark against the silver cloth from the bright and wavering firelight.

Chokichi-sempai walks over to her, small hands on his smaller hips. Looking down at her with those moss green eyes, she stares back into his soul, attempting(and probably failing) to intimidate him as he does to her.

"Were you listening?" He says, tilting his head. Even though he's probably going to die in a few years, Tsukiko feels as if he would make a great friend.

Tsukiko shakes her head in a negative, one of her two buns falling out of it's hair stick. It clatters against the ground, but Tsukiko's more worried about the glare Chokichi-sempai sends her way.

"I asked you what you could do to get better." He barks out, voice cracking at its misuse. She nods her head quickly, knocking her other bun out of its place.

Glancing down at the two lost hair sticks, Tsukiko bemoans their loss, wondering how her hair looks now. It's a pointless thought, because she knows that the white hair sticks up randomly and looks like a birds nest now that half of it is out of it's restrictive holds. "I can start running more often, I guess." She mutters, voice quiet and timid.

"That works on your endurance, not speed. But it can work. What else?"

"Timing myself?" Tsukiko says even more timidly, shrugging a little too nonchalantly for the tone of voice she used. Chokichi-sempai nods his head in approval, but Tsukiko is looking elsewhere; the other water dripping from a leak in the wall, another unnamed child that arrived weeks before she, the blood stains on the floor.

Coughing onto his wrist, Chokichi-sempai waves her away, turning his back to her to probably attend to his broken nose. Tsukiko grimaces at his wet cough, remembering her first death.

The sterile scent of the room, the faceless nurses, the soreness in her mouth and throat and mind. She remembers it as if it yesterday, her own sickness not being taken care of proper as she was too poor to get better insurance, too poor and friendless to get the right help she needed. It felt like she was back in time, lying in that standard hospital bed, waiting for her death to take her to end her misery.

Death obviously failed at it's only job though. She thought Death is the end of everything; of pain and misery, the known and expected. Death is the beginning of good health and happiness, the unknown and the unexpected.

But it failed on her case; why hers, is the question. Does this happen to everyone? They get transferred from a world where the new world is fiction, where everything they know has been _stabbed_ in the fucking _throat_ because the laws of… of _everything_ no longer works in place, where the apple has the chance to _rise_ instead of _fall_?

She digresses.

What is a life without surprises? Nothing.

What is a like without change? Nothing.

What is a life? Meaningless, useless, _nothing_.

It doesn't matter what she knows; what she can do now; what she can't do now. What matters is that she lives; that she succeeds.

That she concors what can kill her.

A hand is softly placed on her shoulder, and Tsukiko reacts violently, lifting her leg from behind to kick the unknown person from behind. It grunts, and Tsukiko twists around to look at Atsuko-sensei.

Atsuko-sensei is one of the many teachers inside the cave, she doesn't have the shikotsumyaku like the most of the younger population, but her dark hair and almost black green eyes is a relief to look at. Her crimson markings are rather large on her face, standing out more so than the rest of her features, which are almost as dull as Tsukiko's first life.

"Tsukiko-san, I'd be careful about zoning off if I were you." She says, her mostly monotonous voice more of a sarcastic snide if anything.

Tsukiko nods her head, seeing her hair sticks on the ground and bends over to pick them up. "I would, but there is much on my mind after the spar." She says, rolling the brown and wooden material under the pads of her fingers, looking at them with much more interest than what she actually feels. Atsuko-sensei's red dots of her forehead are distracting, and it isn't the first time Atsuko's gotten into a fight with the kohai's about them.

"Spars can help the body and mind." Atsuko-sensei mutters, pivoting on her heel to turn away. Stopping mid-step, she turns her head to look at Tsukiko, glancing at her with narrowed eyes, "Don't get caught up in your thoughts all the time. You're a Kaguya, and Kaguya's don't use their minds in battle, they use their raw power and fear-inducing abilities. It would be a shame to lose a valuable fighter like you because you were too busy thinking about the _flowers_."

The four year old nods her head, clutching her hair sticks tighter in her hand. _What's so wrong with thinking things through? What did she think I was thinking about?_

 _That's how they control you ,_ something in the back of her mind mutters. _They don't want you to see how_ caring _and_ human _other clans are in battle, they don't want you to see the_ light _in the_ darkness _, the_ good _in the_ bad _, the_ hero _in the_ villain _. They want to keep you to _themselves _, they-_

Tsukiko stops listening then, trying to get the dead voice out of her head. She tries to think of Oyu's voice, even Akira's, but the low and deathly voice still overpowers them, screeching over her attempts to hide it.

 ** _They don't want to let a_ valuable solder _like you to go._**

It's hard to not think when you spent at least twelve years of your life in a facility that demanded you to think, that demanded that you have to memorize. It's still hard not thinking about the consequences of her actions, how much she fucked over the universe because of her mere existence, Tsukiko's no longer sure if she's canon or an anomaly.

She hopes it's the former. She hopes that she doesn't change anything.

She'll have to wait for another time to think. She's getting ahead of herself. She needs to rest.

The air is stale here, and Tsukiko feels herself wilting and withering away inside. What she would do to get back what used to be hers. To get back to being normal, having her home that she made back. She wants it back, but she doesn't know how.

When she breaks out that breath, through, her heart beats against her ribs. It sends shivers down her spine and goose bumps down her arms and legs. It's a terrible feeling, knowing that you're as useless as an ant to a dog.

But Tsukiko digresses, shoving the feelings down the drain of her mind and heart. It's pointless to remember such things, to try and get back what is now unachievable. To try and make a life again. To try and make a life loveable again.

When she thinks about it she thinks that living this life is pointless. Why would she want to live a life again when she already knows what it feels like, that she knows what it's like to have a mother not show up to her deathbed, to never have interacted with a suitable father figure and have a normal _family_. It's _pointless_ now.

And why _here_ of all places. Why in a world where child kills child, where the average lifespan is less than thirty years, where clans battle clans for ancient feuds that have long since lost meaning, where you are a shinobi or a civilian, where you are this side or none at all.

And _this clan_ , why was she born into a clan where everyone is psychomaniacs and thrive off of killing others, where a four year old is pitted against an eleven year old. It's just so fucked up and so crazy that Tsukiko wonders if she's dreaming, wonders if this is all a lie.

It's not like she killed anyone important in her last life to deserve this, and as far as she knew magic and curses were - maybe still are - a far off thing. It takes a certain amount of craziness and hallucinogens to get to a place like this, and Tsukiko's certain that she's never done anything too heavy to even imagine getting to a place like this.

But it's getting too late for her to question things like that now, it's too late for her to do anything about it now. There are just so, so many things that can happen now, so, so many things that can go wrong now.

It's too late for her. Just… too late.

She has to get down for a nap, anyways. Tsukiko understands that they are going to do something different tomorrow. It's best that she goes to sleep now.

But, as they like to say, there is no rest for the wicked.

Although she doesn't describe herself as 'wicked', there is still a chance that the dice will land on it. People around here are so closed minded that they don't see the value of someone who lived another life, that they have the chance to know so much more than the general population.

If she told Akira what she is, what she used to be, Akira would kindly tell her to get more sleep, to rest the mind for a while. Chokichi-sempai would look at her like she just sprouted another head, and her mother would surely chuckle warmly and tell her to get something to eat or drink.

It's kind of depressing, now that she thinks about it, that this world is so militaristic, that they want the strongest of the strong, and if you're beaten into it. Tsukiko would've assumed that there is a defined line between familial abuse and militaristic family, but the more she thinks about it it seems to get blurrier.

And what makes a clan strong? What makes it prominent in the lives of other clans that they are to be feared and respected?

It's what they can do to the other clans. The only reason why the Uchiha were - and still are - so feared is because of their illusion techniques; and the Senju breed like rabbits, rabbits that are being presented to a fashion show, where they have more that can kill you fifty ways with water with little to no ease. Uzumaki's are known for their sealing techniques and their long lives, and the Hagoromo are known for their relentlessness and wicked strength. Tsukiko guesses the Kaguya can be apart of this little gang of _overpowering-ness_ as well, since their own _fury_ in battle is something to be wary of and second to none, and the threat of someone stabbing you with a broken part of their own protruding ribs is also a possibility.

Tsukiko would've thought that the Kaguya were more widespread, since their tendency to expand and control would've led to some population issues, as it's widely known that the Kaguya clan takes a lot of pleasure in dominating whatever they can touch. It would be possible that they aren't enough of them to produce enough people, or that that isn't the case and members were just slaughtered in the middle of battle.

Whatever the case, Tsukiko's sure that she's strayed far beyond the point of her original thought.

With that in mind, she strides to her nook inside the vast cave systems.

* * *

With fresh water being scarce in the swampy parts in the general vicinity of Water Country, it's a surprise that anyone can get a hold of anything with fairly clean water. While dirty ground water has it's perks in few cases, like covering up scents and hiding true hair color, it's not exactly considered normal to drink black water.

Unless you were forced to, obviously.

Tsukiko lets out a fierce wail of surprise as the cold washes over her small body, temperatures that were once steady now quickly dropping. Her hair clings to her face, and her bones rack with frozen surprise.

"Get your ass up," Bishamon-sensei barks, tossing the empty bale of water at another kid. "We have a special training regime for the next week or so. That means you'll have only a few hours of sleep a day along with constant training. Be prepared to be deprived of sleep, food, and medical care; this is survival of the fittest."

Tsukiko and the other child - Kyoko, if she's correct - nods their heads, loose hair from the night falling over shoulders. The children are dirty, covered in dirt and clothing ragged and loose fitting, and there are dark circles prominent under their eyes, only accenting their red markings.

Kyoko mutters something under her breath, and Tsukiko hears the smack that Bishamon-sensei gives her. The girl get up but don't say anything to each other, and Tsukiko can see the red hand mark on the older girl's face.

Muttering words that are probably a series of stringed together vulgar phrases, Bishamon-sensei makes them carry wooden baskets filled with dirt water from the coldest parts of the swamp. It seems that he's woken up another child - a boy that she doesn't know yet - and has yet to wake up two others. That means there's a total of five young shikotsumyaku users.

But how many seniors are there? She only knows of Chokichi-sempai and another one, but surely there are more?

Tsukiko would've dwelled into it more, but she's shaken out of it by the shriek of an angry boy that leaps at Bishamon-sensei, who swats him down like he's nothing but a bug. For an extra measure, he kicks the boy, who groans in pain.

The boy, Mamoru, if she's correct, crawls back up, wincing.

Bishamon-sensei keeps on going, though, heading to another alcove further down the cave system, scowling as he can't _'find that piece of shit'._ His back is hunched, and part of Tsukiko assumes that he is exhausted, while another part _chortles_ , saying that he is becoming more animal than human in his rage.

Eventually they reach the end of this particular system of rock, where then they are forced to turn back. The system where there are the most nooks are fairly thin, so having a giant push a bunch of children ahead of him is quite the experience. Bishamon-sensei ends up crawling over them, forcing them down to their stomachs and purposely digging his bony knee into their backs.

Kyoko lets out a whimper of pain and she's slapped on the back of her head, which connects to the ground with an unsavory _thump_. Tsukiko crawls over to her and puts a hand on her back, apparently sharing the same thoughts of _'are you alright',_ to which Kyoko responds with shaking her head slightly. It looks like that small action hurted, because Kyoko places a hand above her right eye and grimaces slowly.

When they're allowed to stand, Tsukiko attempts to comfort the boy as well, but he scowls at her, so she leaves him be and moves back to Kyoko. Bishamon-sensei lets out a few unsavory words, and she places them into her word bank, hoping that she'll have the chance to use them sometime soon.

He'll have to explain to the clan head as to why a young lady is swearing like him.

Bishamon-sensei leads them through several other extensions of caves that has the most nooks in them, cursing the whole time about _'fucking up that damned Chinatsu's face'_. He ends up squatting by a small and bloody alcove, cupping his hands around his wrinkled face and concentrating, closing his eyes as his scowl deepens.

Tsukiko can feel his chakra brush against hers, and eventually spreading beyond.

 _Ah_ , so he's looking for Chinatsu via _chakra_. She'd like to learn that, so she'd be more prepared for what may come in the future. Bishamon-sensei obviously wouldn't teach her something like that, though. But it still would be a nice trick to have up her sleeve, as it's pretty known that Kaguya's don't ' _sense_ '; they ' _destroy_ '.

After watching their sensei sit for a few minutes(he wouldn't let them sit down, he struck Mamoru with a large stick that was somehow stashed in an alcove, saying that they needed to learn how to stand for long periods of time). Mamoru glowers but complies.

When he's finished, he stands back up, gesturing for them to follow him. It is normal for them to follow Bishamon-sensei like a bunch of lost dogs, but when he started leading them through some of the smaller cave extensions, wherein even the children have to duck under to prevent themselves hitting their heads on the low hanging ceiling.

It is an odd experience have to see their ever-determined sensei on his side, attempting to crawl his way through the ever-shrinking extension. His grunts and growls rumble through their ears, and Tsukiko senses as if he's ready to kill someone.

Ultimately, he gives up in the end, kicking his students out of his way when he crawled backwards( _and_ on his _side_ , something in the back of her head chortles), he makes them sit close together on a high nook that looks like it was almost carved from a pickaxe.

As the cold surface comes into contact with Tsukiko's knee, an involuntary shiver runs down her arms and back, her blood running cold at the sensation. The slick surface of the stone is as cold as ice, and when the children are forced to sit next to it they almost completely rely on the stark warmth of the others side. The alcove itself isn't that tiny, but with the four children and a raging sensei not far off in the distance it seemed much smaller, crushing them together.

Bishamon-sensei lets out the loudest noise that Tsukiko has ever heard in this life and that sends her mind reeling back into the depths of water. Her hearing is terminated for a moment and blood pulses in her ears.

It temporarily sends her back to her birth, where she was not only cold and covered in gunky and wet stuff, but also the noise was as loud as she could scream. Where the noise wouldn't stop, where the noise wouldn't halt it's annoying sounds.

Tsukiko blinks. She scoots further away from Kyoko and the unknown boy on the other side of the other girl. Placing a hand on her ear, she softly digs her finger in only to feel a warm wetness. Drawing her hand back, she eyes the blood wearily.

Kyoko looks over at her and wearily eyes the blood as well, placing her own cold hands around Tsukiko's small wrists. "How'd that happen." She says, voice low enough that Bishamon-sensei doesn't hear from his spot not fifteen feet away from the trio, but still loud enough for the unknown boy on Kyoko's other side to take notice.

The moment his eyes connect to the red liquid on her hands, his eyes snap back to Bishamon-sensei. He doesn't look uncomfortable, but the pinching around his eyes and the tiny frown on his face gave it away. The boy is apparently squeamish around blood.

He won't last long.

A cold hand moves from Tsukiko's wrist to her shoulder, shaking it slightly as Bishamon-sensei drags a limp Chinatsu by the ankle. "Be sure to clean that. I heard that there are creatures in here that drink blood if it isn't cleaned properly. I heard that they have a poison that can kill."

What a nice way of saying _'hey, clean that shit up before it gets infected with an ugly, puss-filled disease'._

Tsukiko only has a moment to do something before Bishamon-sensei shouts at them to shut up, so she settles for a nod instead.

Chinatsu is thrown in front of the nook that the four children sit in, her head hitting the edge with a sharp _thwack_. Tsukiko is startled at the sudden entrance the duo make, but she gets over it as Bishamon-sensei gestures for them to follow him.

As they follow his orders; Chinatsu crawls from where she fell, rising like the dead, and Kyoko, Mamoru, and the still-unnamed boy slide off the alcove in synch, while Tsukiko takes time to crawl her way out, feeling the weight of the cold and damp clothing. Apparently those walls are wetter than they appear to be, because Tsukiko never thought that they were able to be absorbed by clothing such as hers.

Bishamon-sensei hussles them into one of their many and bloodied arenas. The ceilings are low hanging, stalactites short but still fairly sharp, and the stalagmites stained with blood. The piss-yellow colors almost stark against Bishamon-sensei's near black hair and his teams whiteness.

The group glides in like in the practices; the practices with the sempais, the practices with the other children. While it is rare to train with the sempais, it is still fairly common to train with the senseis; wherein the fatality rates skyrocketed and it is expected that a child did it. Even if the kohais saw their senseis on a almost daily basis it is still a frightening experience to feel the fate of other before, the fate that those souls had before their last breath was taken.

There are many things this room has seen, and that scares Tsukiko. What if she becomes one of them? One of the lost breaths of life that was taken far too early in this cave?

She doesn't want to think about it. So she pushes it to the back of her mind, heaving all of her worries and fears and problems to the most forgetful places in her mind.

"This is a tournament style fight. You all have exceeded our original approach and now we will put you into a different type of fight." Bishamon-sensei starts, pivoting on his heel to look at his disciples. His blue-grey clothing start against his green eyes and deep brown hair. "Chinatsu, you go with Hotaka; Kyoko you go with Tsukiko. Mamoru, you'll fight one of the losers; if you win you'll fight the winner of the other team. Who ever wins the fight will be pitted against the winner of the other group. Be prepared for blood and bones, but I will restrict intentional killing as this is a test of intelligence and strength, not battle intent."

Kyoko glances over at Tsukiko, who stares almost impassively at Hotaka. It is a dead stare, but an inquisitive one judging but the pinching at the sides of Tsukiko's face and the smallest frown a child could make, so Kyoko grabs Tsukiko by the wrist and drags her where Bishamon-sensei told them to.

They are placed in a huge cavity, where there is little to no stalactites on the ceiling and there is a ring of stalagmites surrounding the rocky clearing. The floor is ragged and uneven, and Tsukiko feels as if it was because of the stalagmites that had to be cleared away for this activity. In the crevices there are more blood stains.

Once the duo are in place, they look over at Bishamon-sensei, who is sitting down writing something in a battered scroll, Mamoru at his side, standing. The other pair are fighting, although it looks like it's almost finished. Fights between Kaguya's don't last that long due to their kill or be killed philosophy.

Grabbing the collar of her loose yukata, Tsukiko tugs at it, making it a little more baggier and loose. Since she hasn't reached her developing period yet, Tsukiko doesn't wear bandages to cover her chest, so it was a weird first months of wearing almost nothing to cover herself up. Maybe when she grows older she would use those chest wraps.

Her opponent bends her knees a little, pushing them so that they are parallel with her shoulders. Kyoko knows how to do these kind of things; she's been around longer than Tsukiko.

In terms of strength, Tsukiko fits that bill; but confidence and speed is what she's up against, where there is little she can do other than solidifying her ground and keeping still in hopes that she won't fall. Tsukiko settles into her own morphed form, bending her knees and spreading them like Kyoko, but her muscles are loose, ready to swing out with whatever speed she can muster.

The competitor - Kyoko - makes the first move. She starts off with a punch to the throat, which is blocked by a swipe and a sloppy dodge.

Tsukiko retaliates with a low kick, aiming for the back of the knees, but Kyoko slides out of the way. Ever determined, though, Tsukiko slides her foot forward to lock her place close to her opponent, and then dropping to her side to kick at Kyoko's knees again. Using her hands to support herself in the move, Tsukiko stumbles back up, standing with her elbows horizontal with her shoulders, fists clenched and gaze watchful.

Kyoko comes at her again, and with the grace of a tiger she leaps up, coming down full force with a kick. Tsukiko remembers this move, but hasn't any practice to avoid it, so she drops a shoulder and rolls out of the way.

Kyoko hits the ground with a muted slap.

Already out of breath, Tsukiko can feel her lungs burning for fresh air that hasn't been sitting in a cave since the beginning of time. She's on her back, an open position for a clean kill, so she lifts her leg up and roll backwards back onto her feet again, steady as ever. This time, though, she keeps her fingers in contact with the floor, balanced no matter what and an easy way to deflect almost any move from anywhere.

Her only quarrel with this position is that it's significantly harder for her to put any force into some of her side punches. But she can fix that with time.

With only one opponent in the ring of stalagmites, it is easy telling what is coming behind her. Tsukiko rolls on her shoulder again, feeling it bruise, and then getting back to her previous position.

When the next hit comes, she doesn't roll again, this time she takes it, feeling the fist come into contact with her back, shaking her entire body. Kyoko is known for her speed and dexterity, not her strength, so it is easy reaching behind herself to grab that hand that had hit her. Turning her whole body around, Tsukiko sees the surprise in Kyoko's eyes as she's suddenly tossed onto her back with a hand around her throat.

Thin finger claw at her wrists, reminding Tsukiko of how she got here, how she was forced into this abusive home and this abusive situation and this abusive lifestyle.

Unconsciously, bones begin to prick out of her skin, peeling the flesh open and tearing it as the pinkish-beige bone protrudes out of her forearms. It's an odd feeling, the chakra throughout her body is suddenly active and _hot_ and _burning_ , and Tsukiko becomes _very_ aware of the situation; letting Kyoko's throat go.

While the fight was unnervingly short, Tsukiko feels irritated, exhausted, _faint_. She's never felt this way in a long time, never in this lifetime has she felt the need to _break_ and to _destroy_.

She gets off of Kyoko, pulling back her loose and wild chakra and letting the formed bones fall out of her skin. It felt like her skin is being hollowed out, flesh being forgotten and the rest just… dropping out. It left a bloody and empty pocket in her skin.

Kyoko smiles grimly with a nod, "We know who won this fight, and Chinatsu won hers. Good luck."

Nodding back at her once opponent, Tsukiko walks over to Chinatsu and an unconscious Hotaka. It seems that she is about to make the ending blow to him but is stopped short by Bishamon-sensei. Apparently he is taking the no-killing thing seriously.

Bishamon-sensei grasps her by the sleeve, pulling her into the ring where Chinatsu and Hotaka fought in. Chinatsu looks content, form loose and brown yukata even looser. Her face speaks of highness and almost royalty.

Once Bishamon-sensei leaves the rink to place Kyoko and Mamoru in the other one, Chinatsu confidently moves into her stance, knees bent and feet shoulder width apart, her back slouched and arms resting on her knees. Tsukiko mimiks her, but her back is parallel with her feet and elbows high.

The girls don't have enough time to gauge the others form as Chinatsu is in front of Tsukiko as soon as she saw fit. Tsukiko is surprised by the speed, but is soon tossed onto the ground with a heartfelt _thud_.

Tsukiko's vision is momentarily blurred, but that doesn't stop Chinatsu from lifting her foot and slamming it down on the fallen girl. Tsukiko feels her insides mush up and bruise, but with only a grunt and a few tears Tsukiko manages to get back up.

Chinatsu's fist is flying towards Tsukiko, but she blocks that with a strong and sturdy swipe, coming back at the other girl with a low punch that hits the stomach. It feels like she's hitting a brick wall.

Another fist comes at Tsukiko, and she drops under Chinatsu, rolling on bruised shoulders and staying on the ground. Her arms ache as she tries to keep herself up.

Harsh grunts of rage come out of Chinatsu's throat as she drops low like Tsukiko.

Feeling slightly ripped off, Tsukiko lifts a leg and smashes it into Chinatsu's face. She lets out a broken scream as she backs away, holding her face tightly.

Chinatsu stands back up, the center of her face freshly bruised and blood on the lower half of her face. A few teeth feel loose and her nose is bleeding, but that doesn't stop her from coming at her opponent again, who's now standing again.

Jumping out of the raging girls way, Tsukiko feels her shin getting nicked by something.

Chinatsu finally decided to bring out the shikotsumyaku.

Forcing her chakra to flow through her bones, she feels the bones form under her skin again, piercing through like a knife. Tsukiko makes a short dagger on the back of her wrists, somewhat mimicking Chinatsu's spiked arms.

Feeling the blood and chakra rush through her veins Tsukiko feels like she can take over the _world_. A short gasp comes out of her mouth, taking in the stale air and blood, she waits for Chinatsu's first move.

Unlike the beginning both parties wait for the other, estimating the others strength and speed. Chinatsu looks worn out, her once prideful and confident demeanor now crushed into an oblivion, leaving behind a shell of her former self. Hollow eyes stare back at narrowed eyes.

It's a quiet few moments, Tsukiko can see the agitation in Chinatsu's gaze, hearing the thumping of blood in her ears.

Suddenly filled with the urge to defeat Chinatsu, Tsukiko leaps forward and grabs her by the neck. Surprised by her emotions and actions, Tsukiko finds herself hesitating on her next move.

Chinatsu takes Tsukiko's hesitation and turn it into her advantage, grabbing her elbow and tossing on the ground. But Tsukiko doesn't let go, instead she drags Chinatsu down with her. Chinatsu slaps her hands on the side of Tsukiko's face, keeping herself steady from falling on top of the girl.

Initially startled at the fall, Tsukiko wriggles her legs free of Chinatsu's hold and wraps them around the other's waist. Intending to flip over, Tsukiko becomes more angered that Chinatsu doesn't budge.

Tightening the grasp on her opponent's throat, she sees Chinatsu begins to turn red. Eyes bulge and mouth twisting into a gasping snarl, Chinatsu doesn't let go.

 _The fight can only proceed if you use your gift, your blessing, your curse, your downfall. Use it, hurt her; you already know the bare basics, what is it that is stopping you?_ Something whispers in the back of her head. It's once dead voice is soft, almost like her kaa-chan's voice. _You know how to do it. Use it. You have a bracelet of bone, stab her with it before her sleeve does to you._

It's whispering becomes a motivator, a motivator that makes her drop her hand from Chinatsu's throat and instead grasping at one of her steel-like bones from the back of her wrist.

Tsukiko couldn't believe that she forgot about the protruding sticks coming out of her arms, so when she grabbed the slick but hard appendage, cutting off the chakra supply and completely tearing it out of her arm does she realize that Chinatsu did as well. Pulling back her arm and tightening her legs around Chinatsu's waist, Tsukiko stabs her shoulder.

She had such a bad angle she missed her intended aim, but she is ready to do more.

Before she could draw back and stab again Chinatsu is ripped away from her.

Screams echoed from the two girls, one of fury and another of pain and surprise.

Bishamon-sensei holds Chinatsu from her yukata, the one so lose that Chinatsu is ready to slip out any moment. Her collar is low, but because she is hanging from Bishamon-sensei hands it's up to her chin, and the black obi is riding up her stomach as she wiggles and thrashes around in his hold.

"Yield!" He shouts, aggressively tossing Chinatsu to the side and heads towards Tsukiko. "I have told you before that this shit's supposed to be non-fatal! What do you not get from that; I had to save Hotaka, and now I have to save Chinatsu!"

Tsukiko winces, she didn't really mean anything, it just happened. If anything, Bishamon-sensei should be yelling at Chinatsu for not fighting back, for not being competent enough, for not _trying_.

"I have given you enough time for your fight, it should've ended when it began, there should be no reason why the fight had to be drawn out like that!" Bishamon-sensei spits, glaring at Tsukiko like _she's_ the problem child. "You either rise or you fall, you can't rise if you're meant to fall, so get that shit in your head and fall before you fuck up and make the others follow you!"

She stays silent, observing that way Chinatsu smirks behind a veil of white hair, how Kyoko looks like she's ready to hit Tsukiko for her mistake. Her body trembles under the weight of the stress that is being dumped on her; how is she supposed to succeed when she's expected to fall? How is she supposed to rise when she's expected to be nothing but fodder for their pleasure?

Tsukiko feels tears brimming at the edges of her eyes, and Bishamon-sensei punches her on a temple.

All fades to black.

* * *

 _Well, this just happened. NOt one of my best pieces, but this should get better as time goes on._

 _ **The original word count is 6,231** , so I'm pretty proud of this. I plan on doing 1k words a day, with a day off of writing, so be prepared for at least 5-6k words when I update._

 _Chokichi is 7, 3 years older that Tsukiko. Atsuka is only 17, so 13 yrs older than Tsukiko. Bishamon is 24, 20 yrsolder than Tsukiko. Kyoko's one year older than Tsukiko, so she's five years old. Mamoru, Chinatsu, and Hotaka are all 6 yrs old, two years older than Tsukiko._

 _Please comment, they're really helpful for my motivation! And if you can please help me improve my writing, so don't be afraid to comment on what things I could fix!_


	4. Where Things Alter and Where Things Laud

A long week passes after that incident. Tsukiko is angry at Bishamon-sensei for not being a good teacher, and she's mad at Chinatsu for not being a fucking decent spar partner.

They haven't done much but pointlessly sparring and going on runs with the other children in their group. They've already fought each other enough times that the spars are beginning to become very irrelevent.

Mamoru is dead, killed by Chinatsu only days after Tsukiko is knocked out cold by their sensei. The favoritism is so high towards her that Tsukiko's beginning to feels jealous. How is it that Chinatsu is able to kill a student but the mere thought of Tsukiko getting so close to stabbing Chinatsu sends him reeling off the edge?

And even when Chinatsu nearly kills Tsukiko the next day after their first spar he seems to be proud of her, the light in his eye unashamed and _proud_. Chinatsu was stabbed in the shoulder, but Tsukiko broke ribs and had a bone as thick as her big toe and as long as the entire length of her arm protruding out of her back, and Chinatsu's wounds were almost fatal?

She doesn't understand. She's not sure she'll ever understand.

The children are not only starving, dehydrated, and cold, but they are also sleep deprived. Their balance has been thrown out the window, and their capabilities to form a comprehensive sentence is also gone. Tsukiko doesn't know why, but Bishamon-sensei thinks that this is the greatest form of training.

Even _Chinatsu_ is affected by this, his _little prize_ could get sick and _die_.

He hasn't yet stated it, but Tsukiko can see how he likes to do this to them. Waking up with cold and dirty water is as dangerous as getting stabbed in the back. The sudden cold washing over their tiny, unexpecting and malnourished bodies can cause heart problems later, and if there are any open wounds they can become infected.

Do the other teachers do this to their students?

 _Are_ there any other teachers and students?

Days pass after Mamoru's sudden and unwarranted death and Chinatsu's pulled from their gang with little to no excuse.

She's pulled to a higher class, leaving Tsukiko, Kyoko, and Hotaka to their own devices with Bishamon-sensei. Their group seems so small and insignificant now, the lack of Mamoru's odd coughing fits, the lack of Chinatsu's constant killing spirit.

There are really no excuses to why Chinatsu could move up a class, what's wrong with theirs? Has she suddenly grown in strength that only their sensei see?

Is there something else that just can't be seen?

* * *

Two weeks after she's beaten out cold and Hotaka is dead.

Two weeks after she's beaten out cold and she's taken her first kill.

Bishamon-sensei isn't proud of her, and there's only Kyoko and herself left. That means that they need to find another team to morph with. When Bishamon-sensei saw Hotaka's profusely bleeding and broken body he screamed at Tsukiko.

 _'Why did you kill him? He was the last strand keeping this team together!'._ He hit her again, this time breaking her nose.

They are standing still for almost three days, where the senseis had to arrange their groups so someone could fill in a spot for Bishamon-sensei's dwindling team. They don't seem to be happy about that, but they seem to make a compromise.

Iwao is a simple boy, only five years old. He's pretty blunt, and doesn't mind receiving the same kind of treatment, but he doesn't seem to talk much. Other than his _no-shit's-given_ and _fight-me-you-insolent-fool_ attitude, he doesn't seem to do anything other than listen to Bishamon-sensei.

They spend a week like that; Kyoko and Tsukiko getting used to the lack of Mamoru and Hotaka and Chinatsu, all the while Iwao getting used to the girls. For the same reason, Iwao doesn't speak until the third day of being on their team, and that skewed how they sparred and interacted with each other.

With Hotaka and Mamoru and Chinatsu there was this circle of words; where they spoke what they deemed necessary, words that would help them _improve_. Iwao didn't do that until later. Much later.

Tsukiko would've guessed that her own lack of talking stirred him on to not communicate with them and she can understand why. This is a new place, there are no familiar faces, and the reason why he's even here to begin with is because the girls keep on killing their teammates. She also guesses that it's also understandable since she was the one who killed Hotaka, and she's still here, a larger threat than Kyoko- who's yet to kill.

Their so called ' _training_ ' has yet to cease, as well.

They are only given a few hours of sleep a day, and that has certainly taken a toll on the children. Tsukiko can see that she and the others are slowly deteriorating, dizzyspells are a common occurrence, and so are the random bursts of anger coming from somewhere long rusted to its lack of use. Their balance and slurred speeches are enough to send off trigger warnings in Tsukiko's mind, but she can't remember what it is, and every time she tries to dig it up it just sends her off the roof with headaches and confusion.

Why would they be so dizzy and slow talking? There really is no answer coming to mind and it just feels like a thousand bombs are about to go off in her head every time Tsukiko tries talk to even Kyoko of all people.

It requires little to no brainpower to talk with someone as simple as Kyoko, but it feels like she's back in highschool, slaving over subjects that hold little to no meaning in Tsukiko's once-future life.

* * *

Another week passes, and Tsukiko can barely stand, nor can Iwao and Kyoko. The children are so violent towards each other that if it were not for their constant dizzyspells someone would surely be dead by now. They've gotten so used to their drenched wake-up call that they could sleep through it if it isn't for Bishamon-sensei kicking them to wake up.

They're told that this is how it's always been, that the lack of sleep and food and water is a good thing, to help them get stronger. Tsukiko knows it's bullshit, but she sees the hopeful gleam in Iwao's and Kyoko's eyes.

Iwao is constantly looking over his shoulder now, worried about the _darkness haunting him for his soul._ Kyoko begins to sleep in Tsukiko's nook, ignoring the younger girls minute surprise. While the paranoia is understandable, Tsukiko doesn't understand why Kyoko would want to share a nook. They are growing children, and growing children can't do this.

But she doesn't mind it much. It's comfortable knowing that there's a living, breathing, warm body against hers, knowing that she isn't going to wake up alone.

Tsukiko can barely keep her eyes open, the only thing keeping them wide is the fear of Bishamon-sensei's hand coming down on her or the fear of losing an appendage. She's become hyper aware of his presence, now, Bishamon-sensei is hash with their ' _training_ ', which mostly consist of spars and runs. Once in awhile he'll give them some good advice when they run or spar, like _'bring your legs up, you fool'_ , or even _'stop putting so much damn force into your punches, you'll need that shit energy later'._

When he's not actually do a decent job of telling them on how they can approve, though, Bishamon-sensei snaps at them on what they need to do better with the same recycled words. He often times pulls them from where they stand and demonstrate, always breaking or opening something that they've never broken or opened before. At the end of the days they're always bloodied, bruised, and littered with fractured and broken bones.

If it weren't for their shikotsumyaku, Tsukiko's sure that they would be dead by now.

Their days are long, filled to the brim of spars and running and beating each other up until Bishamon-sensei sees something that could use work. Which is almost every time they do something.

Their lack of food and water and sleep makes them delusional, paranoid, and often times tired. But Bishamon-sensei doesn't seem to care, all he thinks is that they need to get better, they need to get stronger, they need to get faster and all of that without their natural source of energy.

Their shikotsumyaku seems to be their only saving grace.

Their shikotsumyaku seems to be getting stronger and faster every day.

* * *

Four weeks since Tsukiko is beaten down by Bishamon-sensei, after Mamoru and Hotaka dies and Chinatsu leaves.

Four weeks; and it feels like a _year_ ; _a life time._

Bishamon-sensei doesn't show his face around them anymore. He doesn't show hide nor hair. He doesn't even leave a substitue for them.

He is just… gone. _Gone_.

Iwao spends this time picking on the girls, waking them up in Bishamon-sensei's place. He always asks to spar, to fight. To do what Bishamon-sensei always tells them to do.

Kyoko spends her time actively avoiding Iwao, trying to get more sleep, to scavenge for food in their desolate cave. She has yet to find anyone else, she has yet to find food. She is getting stronger every morning that she sleeps in.

Tsukiko spends her time thinking, doing what she always does. She wonders the vast cave extensions, looking through nooks and crannies for lost treasures. She's found sticks, blood, white and black hair, and scraps of clothing. She spends a lot of her time laying in a newly found nook. It's much deeper than her old one, and further away from Kyoko and Iwao's. Eventually Kyoko finds where Tsukiko sleeps and starts to rest there as well.

Bishamon-sensei isn't there for five days, and in those five days Kyoko has gained little weight, but the once crimson lines under her eyes now a deep mahogany. Tsukiko can see things a little more clearer now that she's slept in. Kyoko really doesn't seem all that different, her mostly indifferent personality has a little more spice to it, keeping everyone on their toes for the explosions of anger and lack of inhibitions. Iwao has lost a total of four fingers and five toes, but he should've expected it as he was just so trigger happy about fighting the girls.

When Bishamon-sensei does come back, though, his face is battered with angry red lines and he's missing an arm. He never changed, but Tsukiko could see the irritation in his eyes as he tries to hit them with his lost arm, as he tries to chase them down to only realise that he can't use his arm to capture them.

The children use this to their advantage, standing on his right side and slipping under his one-handed grasp. He doesn't seem to fully understand how much Tsukiko loves this new progress.

She abuses it like he abuses them, taking all of her strength to make him _hurt_.

* * *

A month later and he's finally decided to let them learn something new. He brings Chikichi-sempai over to their sparring arena(the same one that they first sparred in, the one where Mamoru and Hotaka were killed in), and the growing eight year old explained the basics on how to use their shikotsumyaku. Iwao is very impressed by the sempai's explanation on how to use it, saying that now he feels stronger that he finally knows how to properly use it.

Kyoko is less than impressed, but tries to mimic Chokichi-sempai the best she can. She doesn't even look like she's trying, but she manages through.

For Tsukiko, though, she's just glad to see a familiar face, glad that her favorite sempai is here to teach her thing that her incompetent sensei could never do. Tsukiko followed all of his instructions with ease, happy to see the progress that she never thought would happen.

Before he came and taught her these things, it was very hard for her to mold her chakra the right way to make the bones go, and it was even harder to do it in places that weren't her arms and parts of her legs. There was no way the Tsukiko could ever do this one her own, no way that she would ever make it out of this hell without knowing how to do this.

Although Chokichi-sempai is amazing at what he can do, Tsukiko wonders what it's like to be older, to have the ability to not have a sensei beat you down every time you do something wrong. Is it like being an adult in her old life, where you have responsibilities to do but yet none? Where she could just… leave?

That's ridiculous, though. If the Kaguya are like any other clan with a kekkei genkai, a _rare_ one at that, they wouldn't ever let her go, they wouldn't let her leave or do what she wants. Tsukiko is still trying to get over how populous the shikotsumyaku is, too. It was so rare in canon that there was literally no knowledge about how to treat a sick person.

And even if she tried, Tsukiko's sure that they'll kill her.

* * *

Only days pass after Bishamon-sensei arrives again, and this time he's actually acting like the fucking sensei he should've been when he started. Instead of the constant spars and runs with his slowing ass, they're now practicing how to activate and use their shikotsumyaku. He tells them that he wants them to learn how to use it one every orifice on their body before using it actively in the spars.

Although Bishamon-sensei didn't change much(his abusive demeanor, his harsh beatings for not doing something the way he wants), Tsukiko can see clearly that he's now intensely trying to get the team to cover more ground in their training. If she didn't already knew that someone is behind this progression, she would've assumed that maybe his battered face and lost arm is a result of his previously poor training examples.

It's common knowledge that only a shikotsumyaku user organizes all of the groups, that there is almost a second clan head that can actually do their job properly. Tsukiko knows that the person must've done something to Bishamon-sensei to let him know that he's fucked up with favoriting Chinatsu the way he did, or how badly he organized their spars and other training.

And when he starts to not wake them up with his usual black water tactics, the children realize that they see him less and less during their waking time. Although he does tell them to do the shit that he wants, like training with their shikotsumyaku, running and the now occasional spars, he supervises for an hour before disappearing.

While the new changes in his actions are now an oddity the children are taking it in stride, using the time in which he is gone to sleep or scavenge for the scarce food. They are not the best at keeping fat stored in their bodies, and their lack of sleep and abuse makes it the more prominent. Their bodies are small and fragile, black and blue and their skin pale as snow and markings stark like blood on their alabaster skin.

Iwao doesn't really know how to handle the advancement. Tsukiko sees to it that he loses a portion of his left hand, and Kyoko makes sure to handle his screams of fury and pain.

When he stops, though, Tsukiko has already left to take a nap.

* * *

Another month passes like that before they get a new sensei, who is surprisingly Atsuko. She hasn't really changed much in the three and a half months that Tsukiko hasn't seen her.

It intimidates Tsukiko that it has almost been four months already. Four months since she has last seen her kaa-chan, four months since she's been outside, felt the wind push against her skin and clothing, since she's smelt the fresh and wet earthy air.

With Bishamon-sensei gone and Atsuko in his place things have been moving steadily. They don't do their spars anymore, but that has been replaced with vigorous running and physical activities that are similar to the ones Tsukiko did in her past life. Although they don't have the correct kind of equipment for it, they make do with what they have.

Atsuko-sensei is almost like a personal coach. She encourages them to do better, she tells them what they need to work on and actually helps one-on-one, unlike Bishamon-sensei who'd beat them black and blue for not listening to his directions. While it's unusual to see bruises heal away, for faces to not be black and yellow and blue and to finally have time to sleep in, it is a relief that Tsukiko thinks saved her life.

While the children gain a few pounds(courtesy to Atsuko-sensei actually knowing how to feed living creatures), they don't change much. They've gotten stronger, their attitudes are more stable, Iwao doesn't look over his shoulders as often, but the girls still share the same nook.

Tsukiko assumes that it's because of the connection they've made with each other.

Even though the children don't really talk to each other that often, they have a connection with each other that Tsukiko hasn't had it quite some time.

When Atsuko-sensei trains them, she does it so that they learn how to keep their young bodies sharp, how to stretch so they can prevent cramps and pulling muscles. While Tsukiko has never been so athletic or flexible in her life. The only kind of sports she's ever participated in was baseball and bowling, and even then they didn't require so much of anything.

Even with Bishamon-sensei they only worked to get stronger, to defeat what they can defeat and obliterate what they can't. It's like they're finally getting something good, becoming a rounded fighter.

Her body is always sore, be it from the malnutrition or the abuse Bishamon-sensei suffered her through or the new regime, she is sore. When she remembers his abuse she wonders why she didn't do anything about it. She's a grown ass woman in a child's body, surely he should've gotten the cues that she's not what she is?

But no, no one gets it and that makes her soreness hurt even more. It was a dull ache, but now it throbs and torments her in her daily activities.

Tsukiko hates the way it feels, and only to add insult to injury Atsuko-sensei is pretty expectant with the progress the children make. While Atsuko-sensei is by far a better sensei than Bishamon ever is, she is still rough around the edges and expects a lot out of them.

It's a different kind of punishment that they're not fully used to. While Bishamon-sensei would hit and break, Atsuko demands higher and higher burnout after a workout. She's like a typical gym teacher.

You get it done or I'll give you fifty push-ups. You're complaining? Fifty more pushups.

While it's relieving to have that kind of motivation again, Tsukiko's body still aches. She would like a break sometime soon.

* * *

A month passes after Atsuko become their sensei, and the only thing exciting to happen is that Iwao's mangled hands have become infected. While they healed up pretty nicely after they were attacked, that doesn't seem like an excuse for infections to begin to make them swell and ugly.

They are purple and yellow, swelling so much that they crack and blister everytime he tries to move his hand. He is immense pain.

When they began to swell Iwao didn't think much of it, brushing it off with no excuse. Atsuko-sensei and the girls originally thought that it was because of the must be changing seasons and that was agitating the old wounds. This has happened when they were first inflicted, so why else would they be swollen?

Eventually the skin does open up, and creamy yellow pus does somehow spread the infection to Atsuko-sensei's own wounded leg from an old and poorly healed injury. Tsukiko would've said that this is an epidemic, but that is a widespread _disease_ , not an _infection_ caused by the lack of care.

Those two are soon laid off and quarantined by the other senseis and concerned officials, like the clan head and the shikotsumyaku supervisor. That means they have left Tsukiko and Kyoko on their own. They aren't separated from each other to fill in some missing teams, but they are told to find themselves someone who would govern their training.

At first Tsukiko thought that that was a pointless order; who else do they go to? They know no one else other than Atsuko-sensei and Bishamon-sensei. One of those participants is currently in quarantine and the other has been told that they can no longer teach due to their _'controversial methods of teaching and handling of civil disobedience'._

While Tsukiko and Kyoko have been left to their own devices, ignorant of their sensei's and teammates conditions, ignorant to the outside world and politics, they search the vast cave systems that they were once too busy to explore. It is weird that they now have the freedom to do whatever they want to, but they aren't objecting to it.

Tsukiko finds an outlet of water. She is too scared to explore any further.

One day, though, Kyoko asks Tsukiko for a spar. Nothing too complex, just a relaxing spar that requires no winner or death, just a fun and friendly spar. She says that she would like to advance their relationship, but she doesn't know what else to do that both parties would like to participate in.

Tsukiko says yes and they find their old sparring ring. Kyoko looks apprehensive, but Tsukiko takes no notice of it. It has been a stressful few weeks, and she too is becoming wary of what might comes next. Their first sensei lost an arm due to unknown reasons to them and now their second sensei may just lose as well a leg.

They spar, and Tsukiko lets Kyoko go all out, letting her win the round. The five-soon-to-be-six year old is angered by the misshapes of their team's well-being. Mamoru is dead and so is Hotaka, Bishamon-sensei had been laid off almost two months ago, Iwao might die from that infection in his hand and Atsuko-sensei may follow the boy.

Kyoko is a very monotone but passionate person, although she doesn't show it she loves to have people and conversation around her, the signs of life and well-being. Tsukiko would've helped her heal more in the absence of Iwao's blunt answers to everything and Atsuko-sensei's extreme punishment that aren't beatings. Tsukiko would've done it, but she just doesn't know how to.

The duo spends most of their time like that. Spars, exploration of the tunnels, talking, sleeping.

Tsukiko is now apprehensive on exploring that water outlets. She sees the distant light in it, but hesitates. The light may be a lie and the water is a suffocating demon that always desires a sacrifice.

* * *

A week and a half after they received the new, the duo are assigned to a group with four other children. Since there is no other room with the other senseis to have any other children and the girls are reluctant to leave each other, they have been assigned to a groups with three boys and one other girl.

Anzu, Hirohito, Yasuo, Masato, and Chikako-sensei are their names. Tsukiko knows that she and Kyoko will have trouble remember the plethora of names. This is the first time in their short lives that they've had to memorize so many labels. Before, it was just meeting one person at a time and slowly getting to know them, but now it's just an explosion of hot molten to the face with all the names and personalities.

While Tsukiko's never had an issue with this kind of thing before in her past life, she doesn't quite trust herself now. She's forgotten a lot of things the last few months, and she guesses that it's only time before she forgets everything because her soul is growing old.

If she hadn't died she would be thirty three years old by now. It isn't an impressive feature to have, but it came with all the knowledge of this universe for the next hundred or so years.

Hirohito, for all of his scars and adorableness, is cool and collective. He isn't as loud and obnoxious as Yasuo or Masato, nor is he as quiet and reserved like Anzu. He just acts himself with some more respect.

If the other children weren't so… unique, Tsukiko would've tried to get to know them but not even the sensei seems worthwhile. Chikako is the round kind of sensei, where she'd rather you know a bit of everything than nothing at all. Like the jack of all trades, master of none she is. She even has the shikotsumyaku, which is a plus.

But with so many changes in their training leaves Kyoko and Tsukiko in a hold. They were just starting getting used to Atsuko-sensei's methods, and before that they were already used to Bishamon-sensei's abuse. But now with this? The hectic training with commotion, birds chatting around them?

It makes absolutely no sense as much as it's an assault to the sense. Chikako-sensei encourages them to talk, for them to interact with each other. Tsukiko and Kyoko _are_ getting used to the children, but they are so weird and so, so different from what they're used to.

It's when Masato decides to get all touchy-feely when the children, Chikako-sensei's original gang, realize that they don't know what the duo has experienced before, that the duo are as real and frightening as the real world. That the original circle has been sheltered from the real world.

While Tsukiko can understand why Masato is the way he his, judging from his happy toned voice and innocently ignorant gaze, she still doesn't like it when he touches her. She doesn't like it when he touches Kyoko.

Yasuo is all for the vocals, too. He just never shuts up. He's like a talkative version of Iwao, only this time Tsukiko would rather he lose an arm instead of a few fingers or toes. There is absolutely nothing wrong with talking, it's an invitation to make friends, but Yasuo's talking requires a dense brain, one of which Tsukiko nor Kyoko has.

He doesn't understand the concept of respect either and the moment they show that he has none of theirs he throws a tantrum. Out of all of the other children, Tsukiko is positive that he will be dead the moment he steps outside for the first time in who knows how long. Or within the year.

Both are good.

Chikako-sensei, for all of her love and support for her mentally incapable children, is the greatest sensei Tsukiko has ever had. Not even her tenth grade algebra teacher can get to the level of Chikako-sensei. While there are some things that could be better in how she teaches, Tsukiko is perfectly fine with Chikako-sensei than Atsuko-sensei or Bishamon-sensei.

Like Tsukiko has said before, Chikako-sensei is a round teacher and wants round students. So it isn't hard for Tsukiko and Kyoko to get used to wildly different teaching methods, although they are getting sick of all the sudden changes.

* * *

"Tsukiko-kun, show me what you can do with you shikotsumyaku." Chikako-sensei says softly, her voice easy on the ears and not too scathing. "You too, Kyoko-kun. This is an assessment; I don't know why the officials didn't do that when you were still in their hands, so do your best. I want this to be as detailed as possible; make a comb or something with as many designs in it as possible."

The girls have never had assignments with their previous sensei's, it was always _'get this done as efficiently as possible and do it with little energy or chakra'_. This is a relief from their stressing exposure of constant violence and general harassment that their previous sensei's placed on them.

Kyoko gets started almost immediately. But Tsukiko hangs back, unsure if she's supposed to start now or after Kyoko's finished with what she's doing. Tsukiko understands that she has to produce something with her bones, and that something could very well be a comb with as much inscriptions and designs as possible, but does she even want to do that? What else could she do?

In the end, in spite of Tsukiko's mind numbing thinking and awareness, Kyoko is finished. She produces and five toothed comb with this texture that reminds Tsukiko of the handles of a metal weight or barbell.

With an accomplished Kyoko and as expecting sensei, Tsukiko is already focusing her chakra to the back of her wrist. She starts off forming six little dots that grows slowly, taking extra care to make the edges as rounded as possible. Chikako-sensei wants designs, yes? As the dots form into longer sticks, she adds a grove into them to make them a little tasteful.

Once they are about the length of her pinky finger is when she makes the grip, reminding herself to be slow and deliberate, to be as skilled as possible in making the swirves and dots on it. Tsukiko has to be careful, concentrating on the thickness and thinness constantly as she eyes her project. It isn't too hard, she realizes, it just takes a little concentration here and there.

When it's finished, she hands the bloody and dampish comb over to Chikako-sensei. It's a work of art, Tsukiko thinks to herself, I'd like to have it back.

Pleased with her students work, Chikako-sensei smiles with a light in her eyes that the girls haven't seen on a sensei's face before. It awakens them to the possibilities to what they can now do, to what they can now say and think without the threat of bleeding or exhaustion.

"Well done, girls," She praises them, examining their works of art. "You've done better than I expected. Atsuko-san must've done some pretty good work with you two to get this good at controlling your chakra outputs."

Her singing praises to them does wonders that they've yet to experience. The warmth in Tsukiko's heart has only been felt on what must've been her first month or so of life, and yet here it is again, coming from a sensei that they'd just met.

"This places you on a higher category than the others, so once I test out your other strengths and weaknesses I can properly place you with a partner. Although knowing Bishamon-san and Atsuko-san I know you should be at a higher level than even Hirohito; my best student." Chikako-sensei says again, handing them their respective combs. "Keep those, they are yours. Be proud at what you can do and try to get better every time you use them. That can become really helpful later on in life."

Holding her comb to her chest, Tsukiko preens at the older women, satisfied that her work has pleased Chikako-sensei. A ghost of a smile appears on her lips, and she feels lighthearted and convenient again.

* * *

 _So much death and so much plot holes._

 _I'm not really proud of this work, but I feel absolutely positive on the future chapters. The next chapter should go over the relationship Tsukiko has with Kyoko and the rest of her groupmates and maybe covering any plot holes that I can find in this and the previous chapters._

 _Nothing is set in stone, so I'd like to thank Cat Beats for pointing out that little fact on the previous chapter, it has been fixed and replaced with something else. I'd also like to thank thanzitay.2000 for commenting :)_

 _And please, if you find any grammatical mistakes/plot holes, please alert me, I'm open to all sorts of criticism and appreciate the help to make this story better for everyone who reads it._

 _Originally 5,496 words._


	5. Where Things Write and Where Things Rest

For the first times in her five years of life in this hell - this _purgatory_ \- she finally believes she's found a place. In the past she had to deal with the incessant beatings of Bishamon-sensei, had to deal with drill sergeant Atsuko-sensei, she had to deal with a mess of a child named Iwao.

Chikako-sensei is a wonderful teacher - albeit a weird one - and Kyoko and Tsukiko have already learned a lot under her tutelage. As Chikako-sensei previously stated, the duo are at a higher level than her own students. She has assigned them to help her own students with their physicality and fighting ideology.

The other children have learned a lot in the past few days as they learned under Tsukiko and Kyoko, and they admire them for that. It's a little weird that they are now sempai's of children that are the same age of.

But no one is complaining.

When Tsukiko first tries to show their newly made 'friends' what kind of fighting she does, as it is clearly known that she is a hard hitter, they are more than surprised when she tosses Kyoko out of the ring like a piece of cloth with a rock attached to it. Then they are immediately on her about how she got so strong for someone so young.

While she is only five years old and still considerably weaker than the average shinobi in this world, she is like a goddess of war to their eyes. The relief that she feels about this, about knowing that she has made a good impression on them, is huge. They know that they won't win against her.

They know that she is the alpha.

There is a huge difference Kyoko acts as well, her entire demeanor almost changing over night. She is much more joyful, much more like a normal child. She loves to use her shikotsumyaku as well; after that assessment that Chikako-sensei made them do she's been creating combs of all different styles and brushing everyone's white hair.

She even gets everyone else to join her on making the combs. They now have more combs than necessary, resorting to giving them to their teacher who then hands them out to someone who does something with them.

Kyoko is a very proud child now.

Not only was that an ingenious plan as it focuses on the precision of chakra and concentration of how much they use as well. Yasuo, for all of his incessant talking, has finally made the greatest idea he'll ever make. After the comb making thing finally boomed he suggested that they try and make as many as they can with the most detailed designs as possible.

This also lead to Anzu suggesting to do it somewhere on our body that hasn't been done before. She has been able to do it on her ankle so far, but Tsukiko managed to produce a comb on the small of her back, a feature that not even Chikako-sensei isn't able to figure out yet.

Other than their more than positive effects on each other, Tsukiko believes that they are doing exceptionally well. The abuse that Kyoko and Tsukiko had to go through with Bishamon-sensei and the wild exercise methods that they had to deal with Atsuko-sensei are now gone; buried in the dirt to rest forever.

* * *

"This exercise is one that I was taught when I was still a little child like you all." Chikako-sensei says, handing them all a wrapped scroll in a tanned leather case. "It's called literature."

"What's that?" Masato inquires, tilting his head to the side, short and freshly cut hair falling over his small shoulders.

"Where you read and write stuff." Chikako-sensei says again, her voice more blunter than normal. "It's something that I'm not required to teach you, but I feel it's important that you get the basics. I, myself, am not the best at writing, but I'm _one_ of the best at reading in this clan."

"How can you be good at reading but bad at writing?" This time Yasuo asks the question, leaning forward on his knees in his seiza.

Looking somewhat thoughtful, Chikako-sensei places a hand on her cheek and leans into it, looking quite pleased. "You know how bad I am with my throwing? Yes, that has leaked into my writing deftness."

Tsukiko looks at her sensei with a stunned expression. She totally forgot about her literary skills, how could've she forgotten such an important thing?

Maybe it's because of the lack of anything but piss colored stone and flax-white candles that waste away slowly. And maybe it's because the Kaguya find no need in it so they just throw caution to the wind.

"I want you all to open your scroll. I don't need it to be too long, so don't waste your own and your partner's space. You need to find the slit with your right hand and then push the rest away with your left." Chikako-sensei informs them, demonstrating herself with her own scroll in front of her. "Then, you see those inkwells in front of you? Take your brush and hold them with your most favorable hand to fight with, then dip the tip into the wells."

The children follow her orders silently, the only sound is the dead, white noise echoing off the walls and the movement of their clothes. Burning candle wicks, the metallic scent of blood, a certain kind of must, and the stale earthy tone is the only things that they can smell. There has never been anything down in these caves for a long time other than the humans occupying them, so there is never a scent of decaying bodies as animals know not to stray too far in here and the people have enough respect to bury their fallen outside.

"Get used to holding your brush like that, because once you have the grasp of it, you'll have this skill forever." Their sensei tells them, concentrating on her tanned piece of paper. "Then, I want you to make a dot at the top right. Not too high because we'll use that space later."

They follow her instructions, and Tsukiko and Anzu look over their scroll to peak at Chikako-sensei's to see if they got it where she wants it to be. The two girls share a look and Tsukiko's lips twitch.

"Then, keeping your brush on that dot - _should've mentioned that earlier_ \- you bring it down and- _tada_ , you've got a line!"

It keeps on going like that and soon enough all six of her students are just staring at her, lost and mostly dumbfounded. Chikako-sensei doesn't seem to see them, but once she's done with her character does she see them.

Chuckling shyly, she brings grasps the back of her neck with the free hand she has. "Oh…" She mutters, pink flashing across her features for a second. "Sorry, I got a little excited."

Leaning heavily on his knees to look at the character Chikako-sensei made, Yasuo snorts. "What does that even mean? It just looks like a bunch of shapes and lines."

"This, my lovely children, is the vowel 'a'. You won't see this often unless there's a consonant in front of it; there are other characters that can replace it, like 'ba', 'na', 'ma', 'ka', 'ha', 'sa', so on and so forth." Chinatsu-sensei explains, gesturing her hands around. "There are about forty-six characters in hiragana and there's modified forms that I've seen before but don't exactly know. There are also other methods of writing like katakana but you'll see that in other places that aren't anywhere around here."

"Will we have to learn that too?" Kyoko asks this time, looking down at the one line on her scroll, then looking at Tsukiko's then Chikako-sensei's. "That sounds like a lot to learn, especially since this isn't required for you to teach us."

"Yes, this is an elective, but I am your teacher, no?" Chikako-sensei smugly says, tilting her head at the question and giving off a small smile. "It's my responsibility to teach you guys whatever I know; and literature is one of them. If you don't want to learn it, then don't. But I feel that it's better off that you do once you're off in the world."

Sensing something in the back of her sensei's words, Tsukiko cautiously raises a hand. "I thought that we aren't allowed to go outside and interact with the other people."

Raising her shoulders in a nonchalant way, Chikako-sensei's smile is wiped of her face. "This place isn't good for your health; it sucks everything good and turns it into abuse. I know that there are people out there who care more about the safety of other people in other clans, but the Kaguya don't want you to know that. It's an unhealthy relationship to have with your kinsmen, to be constantly at war with each other, to be isolated from everything else in the world.

"I mean, what can I say? I've never been out there, I've never experienced those things in this life. But I'm sure of it. I'm sure that someone out there - in this clan - is waiting to pushed and waiting for the right moment to leave, to feel the wind brush against hair, to feel the soil in between their toes, to feel connected with the earth again. When I- When I th- When I wanted to be free, I was told that there is no such thing."

Her speech touches Tsukiko's heart in many ways, from the emotional value that Chikako-sensei added to it to the knowing and thoughtfulness of it. It's almost as if they are one in the same.

It's almost as if Chikako-sensei feels what Tsukiko feels.

But…

But that means Chikako-sensei remembers life before this one, that she remembers what it's like to be normal. To know that this is wrong, to know that this is all just a thoughtless world where child kills child and that this is one of the most influential periods in this world's history.

"That's all in the past, now. Now, we have to get to work." Chikako-sensei says quickly, touching her face in an unusual manner. "Do you want to learn literature of do you want to do something more… _productive_."

Only Masato and Yasuo stand up, looking at each other with knowing expressions. They leave with each other and find a corner to do their own stuff.

"I guess you two can go spar each other, then. Make sure to be quiet and don't scream or anything, I have a class to attend to." Chikako announces to the two boys, her fun demeanor coming back, her hand now placed on her lap and a small smile on her face.

Turning back to her remaining students, Hirohito, Anzu, Kyoko, and Tsukiko, she motions her hands to her scroll. "I apologize for ditching you. I know that learning something complex like literature can be hard, especially since I know you won't have much of an opportunity to use it." She then twirls her brush in her hand, smirking, "But at least you become pretty apt at doing shit like this."

Looking at their sensei's odd movement of hands, Hirohito looks like he just hit gold.

"Oh!" He shouts, obviously gaining the attention of Masato and Yasuo, as well as Tsukiko, Kyoko, and Chikako-sensei. "Oh! I get it! We learn this to become more capable at handling weapons in battles so we always have the ability to hold them however we want and adjusting to our liking with one hand!"

Chikako-sensei chickles. "Don't get ahead of yourself, kid. It took me a long time to do this, and I'm sure it will be quite some time for you as well. This is a skills that the best of best writers have since they can write efficiently and have excellent usage of the muscles in the hand." Now finished with her small speech to the children in front of her, she directs her voice over to Masato and Yasuo. " _Ya hear that, ya snotty brats? You can become very skilled at the art of moving your fingers_ -" She snickers "- _to do stuff with weapons_."

Tsukiko understands what Chikako-sensei says and chortles softly. She gains the odd looks of Hirohito and Kyoko, who unsurprisingly doesn't look that flabbergasted, and an awkward glance from Chikako-sensei.

Yasuo and Masato are back with the group in no time, attempting to learn how to write while also attempting to learn how to do that brush twirling thing that Chikako-sensei did. Although they strangely don't say much they do pay attention to their sensei, who just seems pleased with teaching her students something else than fighting techniques and how to use the shikotsumyaku.

* * *

When they're done with that session of literature, their wrists are so cramped that Chikako-sensei just waves it off as normal and tells them to take a half hour break. Yasuo and Masato say the cramps are not worth the outcome, so they tell Chikako-sensei that they are going to spar during the lessons.

Kyoko, Hirohito, and Tsukiko remain loyal to the literature, though. Tsukiko thinks it's very important to learn how to read if she ever wants to get anyway out of here, so she's sticking to learning more of this Japanese hiragana regardless of how complex it it to her English and German mind.

While she wasn't really into language in her past life, she had to learn German to appease to her family standards while young. It wasn't all that useful in school until she made friends with a German student in her art college. Although it's nice learn languages, she's never felt the need to learn more even if she had the capabilities to do so.

Unless it's shoved into your face. Then it becomes obligatory and annoying and harder to learn. Tsukiko would've taken the language in her past life, but she never could find any motivation to do so.

At least then she would've been fluent and capable to write in the language.

At least then she would've had the chance to survive longer in this world.

* * *

A week has passed and she now has all of the hiragana characters mostly memorized. Her writing is shaky and mediocre at best, but she can read. The others, Kyoko and Hirohito, have yet to get to her level. Even Chikako-sensei is surprised at how far she has advanced.

Tsukiko now spars with Yasuo and Masato whenever she believes that she doesn't need to be present in Chikako-sensei's literature class.

Other than the literature the gaggle of children spar each other or try and impress themselves with how far they can go in forming bone-objects - like the combs - with their shikotsumyaku. Not only does that help their control over the shikotsumyaku and chakra pinpointing on their bodies it also helps grow their chakra reservoirs.

And since Tsukiko is so young, at least a year younger than every child in this cave system, her reservoirs grow a lot more faster than everyone else's. It's the fact that her 'coils'(when she observed her chakra systems they felt as if they were coils, pumping chakra around her body like veins but have an ending point that curls up. Whenever she pushed out she could feel everyone else's chakra signatures surrounding her, but if she pushed in she noticed that it 'hid' her own signature) were so large made her easy prey, so she had to take some lessons with Chikako-sensei to hide it better.

But that doesn't stop her from trying to get used to her environment, to try and get as savvy with this land and language while getting strong and physically able to take down a hundred men by herself. Nothing can stop her when she has the motivation.

There is many obstacles she has to go through, though, and she and everyone else knows that. Those who stop her will only end up hurt or dead, because she wants to be free again, she wants to feel the earth and wind and water again like it used to be. She wants to feel what she can't down here.

She just knows it.

* * *

"Your hands have to be wrapped around the staff - like _so_ ," Chikako-sensei says, demonstrating on how to use the staff, one of which she built using her own bone moulding technique. "And then you have to swing down like this. It's important to do it this way because if your enemy gets ahold of the staff then you're definitely fucked."

Her students have a varying level of difficulty doing this, but Hirohito seems to be actually enjoying this as he watches his fellow classmates suffer in varying levels of pain. He is only second to none besides Tsukiko, who's almost bland expression is forced into concentration every so often so she can hold the staff the way Chikako-sensei wants them to hold it.

They have not even left their training section of the cave for quite some time and they are getting bored of the same piss-yellow shit every time they open their eyes. Tsukiko doesn't know about anyone else, but she believes that someone can go crazy if they stay in a place like this long enough. No wonder why everyone is so fucked up, though, they put themselves into a situation where the mental health declines three-fold everyday once the person finally loses it.

"Then, when you're done with that move you go into your basic stance - remember to keep your knees bent, heels parallel to butt, and back straight." Chikako-sensei instructs, standing to her full height. "This is one of the most basic moves I can show you. They can get very complex very easily, so we'll take things slow the whole time, you get that?"

Tsukiko nods her head, aware of the question and even more aware that it wasn't directed at just her. Leaning back on her heels in the basic stance, she bites the inside of her cheek, eyes wandering over to the backs of Anzu and Hirohito.

She wonders what it's like being ignorant to the future lives in this world, being ignorant of the possible freedom that could be if she just ran.

She just wants to be ignorant again.

Chikako-sensei's words still bug her, the words that she said way back when she started the writing and reading lessons. She sounded _so sure_ about what it's like to be _free_ , to be able to feel the wind and the soil and smell the earth and all of its components.

She sounded _so sure_.

"Next, I suppose we can move to something more complex than that." The older woman says, motioning for the children to follow her instructions clearly. "This is something that you could always use, but only in the right kind of position where you know you are the weaker one, otherwise it completely makes this move totally useless."

* * *

Takeo arrives at the gangs doorstep only days later, an ugly smirk on his face as he requests to see Tsukiko.

She is intrigued; why does he want to see her now? She's already cycled through two senseis, does he want to test his luck and train her instead? It seems unlikely as he has a clan and family to attend to. Didn't he once say about having another heir?

There is no ounce of respect in his body, only sheer egotistical pride and hauteur - that makes Tsukiko the more wary around him. When he grasps her small shoulder with calloused hands did that only solidify her reasons. He is to be feared; he is not to be trusted.

They move throughout a dimming hallway, the candle and oil-lights seeming as if they need to be changed or re-lit. The further they walk, the further away she is from comfort, from Kyoko, Tsukiko begins to feel the first signs of dismay and restlessness.

 _Panic_.

That's what she's beginning to feel.

The cold, yellow walls are slick with dew and spotted with blood. There is a cryptic, sickly feel to the place.

They only keep walking. Walking. Walking.

 _Walking_.

The course to their destination is enigmatical to Tsukiko, and the namelessness of the destination is the more appalling to her. She doesn't know where she is, only the orange-lit clothed back of Takeo and his hard hold on her shoulder the only thing keeping her on track.

Tunnels are a common thing that they see all day, every day; they live with it. But this, the unmistakably uncharted site that something harrowing could happen to her, this is the place where all hope to live is gone.

She is sure that she will not make it out of these channels again.

Eventually his striding pace slows down a bit and the hold on her shoulder is lightened. Takeo doesn't say anything, which Tsukiko must say is normal for a Kaguya like himself, he pushes her into a dimly lit room.

Saturated and gloomy orange light is emitted by the candles, which are so morphed and so bent that Tsukiko has to take a moment to verify what they are. The walls here and the walls that has covered the halls most of the walk are unlike the ashy blond that she knows, lighted by bright flames of kindly taken care of candles. These walls are lit by the deaths of the unborn, their bronzed tans stark against her white skin as she glances at Takeo. Black nooks are clear in the walls.

He gives her a smug look.

"Remember when I told you about how you would become the Kaguya weapon?" He starts off, yellow-orange flickering off his rough features as an unknown draft rustles throughout the cavern, shaking his short hair and tagging at her own. Shivers run down her spine. He looks scary, intimidating with the dark, mahogany background and the flickering light. "You have been very adventurous, haven't you?"

Tsukiko is taken aback; didn't he once say something about that? About being a weapon?

"You don't have to worry about that, now. It will take time, I know, but from what I've heard you're exceptionally patient with time." Takeo starts off again, seemingly going off a different approach. His words don't seem genuine, but what did she expect from a man like him whose entire life is dedicated to fucking other people over. "Chikako said she wouldn't mind keeping you around a little, she seems to really like you. Not really talkative, but you seem to enjoy teaching others a thing or so. I would feel bad about pulling you away from your friends, so I'll make your transition slowly."

What transition? What is he even spouting on about? Tsukiko is lost on his words.

"This is nothing to be worried about, you can take all the time you want, even. But things have to be done, and those things require your aptitude and durability. I know how weird this is, since I would be your - what was it? Fourth? Fifth? Sensei." Waving his hands around in a some sort of gesture and stepping backwards to motion her further into the room. "You are something to be prized, since you are now my step-daughter and a shikotsumyaku wielder. Chie is a smart woman, she is. She knew that you were different, and she knew that you strived for a better life. I can give you that, you know, and I can give you what anyone else can't."

He doesn't stop, though. He keeps on going about how much she can improve under his tutelage, how much she can improve as a leader and a female head.

At this point his words fall on deaf ears. She's still lost on that one sentence that he just said. _'you are now my step-daughter'._

She doesn't recollect anything about his presence in their home - _her_ home - _ever_. Tsukiko is at a loss of words. Who is he? What does he _mean_ to her _mother_ , what does he mean to her? What is he _supposed_ to mean?

"-can all be arranged some day. I've never thought that we'd get into a situation like this, though. I will love to see the faces of my clan as they see who succeeding the title as clan head, they knew from the start that I didn't want it and now that I have the power I can do whatever the fuck I want to it, including having a child that isn't even mine by blood take it."

Takeo lets out a low and almost hollow chuckle, his cracked lips forming into a crooked smile. Closing his eyes, he lets out a long needed sigh that almost shows his true age.

Something then flickers in his eyes, something that Tsukiko knows to be something akin to a spark, like a light bulb just went off in his head. A malicious grin over takes his once old features, twisting them into that of a demons.

"But that doesn't matter now, what matters is that you learn some new and very handy techniques that only a few shikotsumyaku wielders are permitted to know and do." He says, leaning back on his heels to look at her features more closely from his tall prospective. "You fit the bill, but you are still too young. How old are you? Five? Six? You'd be the youngest to ever learn these techniques. I'm afraid that I'm the only one who has permission to teach these, so everything is styled just for you."

Pivoting on his heel, he walks over to a shadowed nook and grabs something from it. He grabs out a scarf, a scarf that looks like it used to be something akin to white but is now a very bloody, very tattered scarf. He's excited, Tsukiko can tell, his chakra is spiking in a pulsing and uniquely, disgustingly warm way.

Tsukiko is disoriented, feeling quite stressed and confused and very, very nervous.

"This is an older style of training. The scarf is useless right as of now, but once you get the hang of things it will show you it's importance." Takeo says, stepping closer to her. He towers over her, a good three decades older than her.

He is the oldest person she knows here.

"I want you to sit down in the center of the room. There, you will see that the ground here isn't the rock or the occasional dust and bone remains, it's fresh soil from above the caves." He starts off, motioning to where the cave extends off to show a sunken and clearly walked on arena. "The technique is easy for some, hard for others, and just impossible for the rest. It just takes intuition and precision. You know how to use the shikotsumyaku, correct?"

She nods her head, already preparing for a beating.

"I want you to produce your bones outside of your body; in the soil or even in the rock. Somewhere, anywhere that isn't inside your flesh."

Tsukiko gives him a look, cranking her head up to look at the old man, blindly taking in his features. She doesn't like him, she realizes, she doesn't like his actions towards her.

His large hand taps her shoulder roughly, pushing her forward towards the loosely packed soil.

 _She doesn't want to do this._

He motions her to sit down.

 _She doesn't want to be here._

She sits.

 _She doesn't want to deal with this._

He motions for her to try.

 _She doesn't want to go through with it._

She tries.

* * *

Exhaustion ripples throughout her body, hollowness prominent as she tries to push it all down the void. She is so tired. She is so drained.

A small hand shakes her shoulder, rocking her body and causing loose hair to fall onto her face. Tsukiko groans lowly, pushing her hair and swiping the hand away.

"Get up, Tsukiko," Kyoko says softly, her voice quiet to prevent the inevitable echoes. "Chikako-sensei wants us to learn some kanji before she lets us practice with the staffs. She says it can be very important."

Only one word crosses Tsukiko's mind, and that word is ' _why_ '. _Why_ learn kanji when they're all going to die tomorrow? _Why_ learn kanji when they'll never get the chance to see the sun again. _Why_.

Tsukiko is too tired for this shit, she's too tired to deal with this shit. She too tired to have to wake up in Ass-O'clock Shit-knows-when in a five year old girl's body, she's too tired to have to fight for every waking moment for something that will never come.

She's just too tired, and she's too confused, and she's too angry at the world and too angry at death to do anything. Why is it that she has to deal with this? Why her when someone else could've dealt with this and probably a lot better than herself.

"Come on, you know that this is going to be like everyday." Kyoko tries again, this time pushing Tsukiko's shoulder into the ground, forcing her on her stomach on the hard ground of her nook. "You know you'll live to see the next day, so don't be afraid. You can talk to me. I've been with you, I know you. Don't shut me out."

Those are some pretty deep words for a six year old, but Tsukiko ignores that fact. She needs a rock, a place to keep hold in this tyrant river she's supposed to call life. A place to keep her sturdy and strong and _here_.

"What if I don't wanna?" Tsukiko asks, pushing herself up and sliding out of her nook with Kyoko on her side. "What if I just wanna sleep all day and play dead all night? What'll happen?"

"Chikako-sensei will laugh at you, but she won't laugh to make you feel sad, she'll laugh to make you laugh." Kyoko presses on, trying to make Tsukiko move faster. "At this time you're as slow as a grandma!" While Tsukiko understands the joke, she feels as if Kyoko doesn't.

She's sure Kyoko doesn't understand what it means to Tsukiko.

With a small smile gracing her lips, Kyoko pulls Tsukiko further and further from her sleeping place, tugging at her clothing to make her move faster. "We have to be the first ones there; I know Hirohito isn't there yet, and Yasuo and Masato aren't even awake, either. Come on, let's be there before Chikako-sensei!"

Tsukiko has to let out a chortle at that. Kyoko, for all of her strength and all of her bravery, still acting like a real child. It's a relief to see something familiar, but she knows that it will be gone sooner or later.

She hopes it's the latter.

The duo walk throughout the tunnels with near experticity, knowing which division will lead to where. Tsukiko uses her newly developed sensing abilities to scope out the area a little better, but she still relies mostly on what she remembers she saw.

She knows that she will lose all hope in learning how to read in this foreign language. She knows that once she loses all contact with Chikako-sensei she knows that she won't learn anything else than fighting and war.

They soon arrive at the cave that they're supposed to call the training room, which is nothing short of an empty barn house. Chikako-sensei has yet to arrive, so that makes Kyoko and Tsukiko the first ones there.

There is a certain heaviness underneath Tsukiko's eyes that seem like a magnet to the top lids, she is exhausted now that she isn't moving anymore. Grasping onto Kyoko's tattered kimono sleeve, Tsukiko drags her pleasant friend over to a large nook and crawls inside, patting the hard ground for her companion to join.

It's nice knowing that she has a friend here. It's been quite some time since she's had one like Kyoko.

Tsukiko wishes that this'll never end.

* * *

 _Original word count is 5,559._

 _I'm trying to brush somethings up from the previous chapters but also preparing for the nest ones, and I'm pretty damn sure that I'm failing at this. Tsukiko is one of my weirder characters so I'm having some issues portraying her the way I want in these situations._

 _I just want to let all of you know that this is Tsukiko's story living in the Naruverse, so Madara and Hashirama and that kind of stuff isn't going to come until the next few chapters in which Tsukiko runs away. I still have no way how I'm going to play that out, but I have an idea that might just work._

 _Chikako may be a reincarnate like Tsukiko and there's probably going to be a subplot about how that shit works as well._

 _IDK what I'm doing and this chapter may as well be rewritten sometime._


	6. Where Things Burn and Where Things See

**_Warning; swearing, child abuse, and self cannibalism._**

* * *

Tsukiko coughs out the dust and dirt, sputtering as she tries to get up from under Takeo's feet. His large foot pushes down on her back, and she lets him do it.

"You're not doing it right. I've told you this before, now. Don't you ever listen? This is becoming pointless. I can tell you know what you're doing but you're not going through with it." He barks at her, shaking her body with his foot for an extra measure. Soon enough that weight is off of her. "Get up. Try it again."

Tsukiko rises slowly, making sure that nothing is broken or seriously bruised. She can't feel her back or ribs. She knows that they are his favorite spots to hit her. She knows that they are black and blue.

Tsukiko sits back down, lotus style.

He wants her to produce bones out of her body, using the calcium-rich soil underneath her to do so. She doesn't understand why this move would ever require a scarf or be limited to a special few shikotsumyaku users.

Pushing those thoughts and questions out of her head, Tsukiko closes her eyes and inhales strongly, her stomach protruding from boney ribs. She pushes out her chakra from different spots on her body, primarily her feet, knees, and butt. He told her that people have ' _sweet spots_ ' for this kind of thing, so she shouldn't worry if she can't get it now.

His hypocrisy is ridiculous. She has been beaten black and blue before but she won't tolerate it if it comes from her supposed _step-father_ , she wont tolerate it if it's from the man who _married_ her mother.

Feeling around with her strings of chakra, Tsukiko begins to feel at ease with placing strong amounts of chakra at her feet. Remembering the feeling of producing bones in her body, Tsukiko tries to do that with the earth, assuming that she'll need a lot more chakra and a lot more force to produce them.

It only takes Tsukiko a heartbeat to realize her mistake.

It only takes Tsukiko a heartbeat to feel the brutal pressure on her chakra core.

Her stomach, where her chakra core is, sinks to the pit of her body. It's being trampled on by the ever _hungry_ , ever _insensitive_ , muddy and _growing_ barbs of _bone_ around her.

Takeo is pushed back from the amount of force she pushed her chakra, his back pressed against the furthest wall.

The crushing pressure that is on her chakra coils sends Tsukiko wailing.

It _burns_.

 _It burns._

 _Why_.

 _Why_ does she have to _do_ this.

The bones keep on growing, they keep on sucking from her dwindling chakra reserves and _burning_ the pathways away. With a wailing and flailing Tsukiko and a silent Takeo the bones eventually begin to prod at the jagged and stalactite littered ceilings, causing a few and _large_ shards to break off and falling to the ground like thunder.

Tsukiko is now crying, fat tears rolling down her face, trying to take back what's hers, trying to push the chakra back into herself, to reverse her mistake. She tries, she honestly does, but it doesn't work as well as she initially thought.

The bones stop sucking her chakra, but they don't seem ready to shrink and fade away from existence. Is this supposed to happen? Takeo didn't mention anything beyond creating bones from the soil and the expected feeling.

He's the bastard who told her to do this. He is the one who made the mistake, not she.

The sheer anger causes her to unconsciously flare her chakra again, making the bones grow again. Takeo shouts something that she doesn't comprehend and doesn't care to know. If this cave is going to collapse because of his mistake, then so be it.

Stalactites fall even harder and in even larger numbers, rocking the entire cave. Takeo shouts something again, but Tsukiko covers her ears and cries harder and curls into herself; this is all his fault.

Whose bright idea was it to let her do this? _Him_. Whose bright idea was it to let someone like her do this? _Him_.

This is all his fault. That ass and his holier than thou attitude; marring her mother and getting her pregnant, saying that Tsukiko is now the rightful heir to the clan when it should've been Yuuguremaru, his _first_ son, his _first heir_ that he _let her kill._ He is so fucking ignorant to what she sees in him, so fucking ignorant to what he sees in her. If he had learned more about her he wouldn't've let her participate in these clan secrets, he wouldn't've let her go through these caves at all.

He wouldn't've let her live at all.

Her body shakes in fear and anger, eyes closed but still leaking tears, and wet sobs escaping from her mouth.

He doesn't try to comfort her, to tell her that it's okay. He doesn't do anything but yell at her, telling her to shut up and reverse the damage.

The bones dig their claws into the ceiling and never stop.

* * *

He tells her that she has a fortnight off of all duties with Chikako-sensei and himself. He personally escorts her to a lower - and darker - section of the cave systems, a few floors below where her friends, Kyoko and Hirohito and Chikako-sensei and all the rest, are.

The soil here is fresh, like in that cave. The ceilings are high, a few candles hang up there, and there are tiny nooks that harbor others on the walls. It's very dim down here and it smells like mushrooms and mold.

This earthy tone hasn't touched her nose since she died, and Tsukiko's mildly surprised that she didn't smell the fresh soil and musk down here when she roamed those weeks when she and Kyoko had the right to explore. It's a surprise she's even allowed this much time off as well.

Takeo says nothing but the fact that she can't leave without his permission, that she can't leave without someone with her. He leaves behind the bloody and muddy scarf with her, saying that the instinct will come and that it will give her the directions.

She is bored and there is absolutely no life in here. The trickling of water comes to her senses only hours after Takeo leaves, but Tsukiko's convinced that it's just her mind playing tricks. It's far too low for water to be down here.

It's far to low for life to be down here.

It's far too cold for life to be down here.

* * *

It doesn't matter how long she's been in here. There is absolutely no concept of time; hasn't been any since she killed that boy.

A week could have passed as far as she knows. A month could've passed and fuck it if she knew. All she did all day - night, whatever - was sleep and practicing her bone techniques and go through some kata's that Chikako-sensei taught them a month ago.

It feels like an eternity ago.

Eventually Tsukiko gets bored. A bored Tsukiko is a wild one; never has she ever been bored in this life until now.

She thinks to get rid of that nagging voice, the same one that haunted her in her darkest moments, that whispered sweet nothings in her ears that told her how corrupt and destructive her clan is, the same one that had her kill her future clan head, told her to try and kill Chinatsu all those months ago, the one that told her that Atsuko-sensei wanted nothing but absolute control over her. It's not as bad as what it used to be - thank the Gods - but it still likes to make its presence known to her.

Sometimes it likes to get scary, but Tsukiko is old enough to tell reality from fiction. She is old enough to know that she is far beyond her years to deal with this kind of shit.

The dripping is still there, the dripping of water, the water that she though was far beyond this caverns reach, the water that she thought was just a party of her imagination. It's real, she knows. That, or she's finally lost count of her balls.

There is nothing but silence in this ward, nothing but her heartbeat and breathing and that incessant dripping, and she knows that this kind of treatment could be used as a torture technique.

But the Kaguya are not the kind of people to do something like this; to slowly torture. They are getting nowhere with this kind of attitude and treatment towards their futures, the shikotsumyaku children. If they would just open their fucking eyes for once they'd sure as hell see what their doing.

While Tsukiko knows absolutely nothing of what it's like to be a sempai or anyone that has access to the outside, she knows that as the children rise up the rank their population gets thinner and thinner until there is nothing left. It's just the life of a shikotsumyaku user. It's just her life.

She can sense that there may be something going on behind Takeo's actions, but she isn't too sure if it's real or just a product of her paranoia. He, while an ass, seems to be reasonable at times. His arrogance and egotistical audacity don't have a starting point nor an ending point, and that unsettles Tsukiko a little too much than necessary.

Takeo isn't faint at heart and sending her here has to mean something, something Tsukiko isn't too sure of. Is it because of her outburst in that room? Was it because she didn't or _did_ meet his expectations?

And why would the scarf of all things be helpful to her? She's left to starve here for two weeks, and if it wasn't the lack of food she's sure that she would be dead by the time he comes back.

Tsukiko's gone a week without food, but that was with the aid of water and sometimes the blood of her spar mates. She doesn't feel content knowing that there will be nothing she can eat here without causing herself harm that she knows will not heal with the treatment she gets here. The brutality of this place, of the family she was born into, of the people she is surrounded by, is ridiculous.

Why is it that she gets the merciless clan in the warring states period when she could've gotten somewhere better; hell. There are so many things that she could've done to avoid this place, the caves, but she had to loose her nuts and kill a boy she didn't know for no reason and threatened with blood and glory.

Then there's this the fact that she's _supposed to be dead._

How's that possible, you say? Well, fuck if she knows.

This shit is the kind of situation you'll only read in an damned fanfiction, not reality. This is where boundaries are being hazardously pushed and violated for some bastards pleasure. How else is this to be explained?

Ootsutsuki Kaguya isn't the primary ruler of the earth, she isn't the God Almighty - if there is even such a thing. She is the vainest of them all, she is Snow-fucking-White's Queen, she is the only one who started this mess.

But thinking of a long gone alien goddess isn't going to get Tsukiko anywhere. Thinking isn't going to get her anywhere. She needs food, but the only thing down here is mold and mushrooms that are probably poisonous.

However she got into this mess, she just hopes that she can find a way out. A way out that leaves her in one piece.

* * *

Regardless of how she feels about thinking in this situation, Tsukiko can't help but do it. It helps her get away from the void in her stomach that demands a sacrifice. Her blood is warm in her veins, and she can't see the blue veins through her white skin.

She's never seen so few blue lines on her body before.

Tsukiko imagines that they are the same shade as they sky. She hasn't seen the sky in such a long time…

But there are things she knows she wants to see. She wants to see the snow, feel the cutting and _alive_ winds against her skin. She wants to visit a beach someday, she wants to feel the sand in between her toes, to feel the warm sun beat against her body.

She wants to do so, _so_ much.

If only she could get away, if only there is a path that she could take to get out alive and in one piece.

Drip

Drip

Drip…

Water.

But she'll drown; who knows how much water is trapped in this hole, who knows what lies above them. And she doesn't know how to swim, either. She's never swam in this life and the last. Tsukiko knows that she'll drown, because it wouldn't be the first time.

And she doesn't know what lives in there, either. As far as she knows there are poisonous coral snakes in there.

Her stomach drops again, the fourth time today. With foregoing food since ditched here, Tsukiko has been quite deprived of food and water.

Muscles are disappearing every day, and so is the little fat she had to begin with. It hurts to walk, and the clothe seems more edible every passing moment. Her skin is dry and peeling, and in an act of desperation she begins to chew on her nails and calluses on her feet, clawing at her knees and elbows and shoulders for whatever flaking flesh she can get.

It eases the pain, but this self cannibalism can't last long as her dirty feet and fingers are soon chewed down till she sees the pink of her skinless flesh. It hurts, but so does the starvation.

Soon enough she's chewing on the heel of her hand, gnawing on the fleshy meat and making herself bleed. The metallic blood is comfort for the tasteless skin, but it hurts but the starvation hurts more and she's so alone and so hungry that she no longer cares.

So _what_ if she dies, so _what_ if she _eats her hand off_ before the bastard who married her mother gets to her. So _what_ if she doesn't get to go _outside again._

This is what she's destined for, this is what she's meant to do with her life. Staying in a colorless cave, staying in a system where only a small portion of shikotsumyaku users, one out of every twenty, if she's correct, comes out alive.

Her throat is so dry that it hurts to swallow, her lips are dyed red from her own blood and the salty tinge of flesh is prominent in her dry mouth. The center of her stomach burns when she tries to flex it, and she lays all day, afraid to fall if she tries to stand.

She doesn't know how much time has passed, she doesn't know when the last time she ate.

* * *

Takeo, being the fucking bastard that he is, doesn't talk to her. He instructs her to walk even though she's already too weak for it. Whatever he expected of her she obviously didn't meet. The disappointment in his steel green gaze saying it all.

However much she weighed prior to this has now been cut in half. Back then she had defined muscles, now she has bones. Her collarbone and hip bones are very clear to see. She knows that the weight she has lost damaged her in many ways that no one knows about.

Organ failure is something she'd have to watch out for, but she's long forgotten how to identify it if possible without equipment. Infection, lowered white blood cells and immune system, is also something to watch out for but a lot more easier to identify. She's chewed on her hands and feet so much she's sure that infection is inevitable.

It hurts to walk so Tsukiko has to lean on the wall for assistance. The halls are dimly lit, the same orange that encapsed the cave where she let it all go. Takeo doesn't seem too worried about her health, and she's beginning to become irritated at that. Isn't she supposed to claim the position of clan head?

 _He has another brat on the way. Of his own blood, too. He doesn't want you. He doesn't want you in his position. _ Something whispers in the back of her head. _ He wants you gone. He doesn't want you. He wants you **dead**. _

That thought sends her to the ground. Literally.

Takeo barks at her to get up.

* * *

Chikako-sensei tells her to take a few days off. One look at her mutilated hands and feet and Chikako-sensei seems concerned for Tsukiko's health. It's more concerning that no one has yet to talk to Tsukiko.

Kyoko has yet to show her face, and that concerns Tsukiko. Hirohito visited her once, but that was to tell her of what Chikako-sensei wanted her to do; which was rest and replenish her energy. The rest, Anzu, Yasuo, and Masato, are just like Kyoko; they didn't visit.

Life is boring. Her appendages are in constant pain and her skin is blistering at the sudden lack of food. Even if her diet usually consisted of watery and undercooked rice and the occasional rodent, not a highly nutritional diet, the drop of food still made her lose so much weight.

Her body hurts. It hasn't hurt like this since…. Since ever. Not even in her past life. She's so exhausted. She's so… so not fit for this kind of scene.

There is a certain concept that she just doesn't seem to catch about this world, and that concept is the more power you have the better your survival. Tsukiko's so used to survival of the fittest, almost similar to what she previously stated, but when it's survival of the fittest there is an even fighting ground, not a fucking mountain and half a hill to climb.

Her mistrust towards Takeo only seems to grow more towards hatred. Tsukiko hasn't felt this fire, this all consuming flame, _burning_ desire to maim and to make him feel _pain_ in such a long time. It's then she realizes that she actually feels hostility towards this man. This man that tried to kill her, that made her kill his probably weak son.

This man who's fucked her _mother and married her._

Chikako-sensei doesn't make it all better, either. Her odd and almost not worthwhile talks of _what things could be_ and what _things can be_ about freedom and clever training techniques. She doesn't seem to see what it's like to be Tsukiko. She doesn't seem to see what it's like to know things she shouldn't and remember things that are probably nothing but a dream.

But that doesn't seem stop the elder shikotsumyaku wielder to approach her on her third day of resting.

"I know what it feels like." Chikako-sensei confides, sounding like one of those high school grade counselors. "I- I hope I'm not going off too strong, but I can see it in your eyes that you've seen things. I'm not denying that none of the other children've seen things, but you're different from the rest of them. When I first met you I knew that you weren't that much of a talker, letting Kyoko go in your place. It's understandable if my assumptions are correct."

Tsukiko doesn't say anything, she just peels at the flaking skin on the edges of her fingers, body crammed into her nook and back facing the opening as Chikako-sensei sits in front of the entrance; her only escape. Her finger have healed up nicely, but that doesn't seem to stop the scarlet from staying on her body.

"There is something different about you that I am very familiar with." Chikako-sensei starts again, this time trying to take a different approach. "Death." She states that word likes she knows what she's talking about. "You've died before, haven't you?"

Such a bold question for such a little girl like her to answer.

"Yes." Tsukiko finally mutters. "I have experienced it. A long, long time ago, in a universe far different than this."

Chikako doesn't make a sound, but Tsukiko's keen ears hears the ruffling of rough clothing, shifting of fabric against skin and fabric against stone. The earthly scent that was in that molding cave is now gone, replaced with the same murky and wet tang that the rest of this damned cave harbors.

"So you remember being in a place being different than this? No chakra? No… no wars over children and bloodlines?" There is hope in Chikako's voice, almost pleading hope. If Tsukiko wasn't so worn she would've at least looked at the woman to see if she is fine. "I know that it was like that for me. Except there was still wars over land and power and money. What was it like for you?"

"There is no chakra in my world. Only wishes of it, the distant thought of what a world with it would be like." It's hard, Tsukiko thinks, it's hard to say many things with so little words. Her vocabulary is still shit, too. She doesn't know much than the basics. "Foretellings of a universe where things can be whatever the beholder desires. This world is one of them. I have never seen so many innocentless children in my life before."

"What were you called before this?"

"I don't know anymore. It never meant anything to me then. It'll never mean anything to me now."

"I was known as Aino."

Chikako's first name would've meant nothing to Tsukiko if it didn't bring such a rage of memories that wouldn't bare their faces. That name is familiar, and the urge to dissect it is immense. "What did you do in your previous life? I was a part time artist and florist, full time academy janitor." Tsukiko asks, because she has a feeling she'll get a very fruitful response.

"I was a handmaiden to a very powerful and influential concubine. Kaguya."

There.

That is it.

Ootsutsuki Kaguya, the bitch who started this mess, the bitch who is part of the reason why she's here. Aino was the Ootsutsuki's closest humans on this planet. Aino was a friend.

"How old were you when you… died? I was twenty four."

"Twenty eight."

"Did you have any family? Children?"

"They are the reason why I died."

"I only had Kaguya, I would've liked to see her children, but… but I died before they were even born."

Tsukiko can sense that Chikako-sensei… Aino-sensei is becoming weary, her words becoming slow and heartsick.

"This language isn't even my own." Tsukiko says, trying to get away from the sadness, her voice echoing off of the stone wall she faces.

"It's the same with me." Chikako says, mutter a little under her breath.

"That happens to a language after a long time. But I'm saying that, I, unlike you, never spoke this language, not even a subset of it, until I was born again."

"..." Chikako is quite for some time, "How- how did you know that I was from so long ago."

"Kaguya." She states, rolling over on her other side to look at the woman. "Your world is nothing but fiction to mine. I know everything."

Mistake.

Tsukiko just made a mistake. She told something that could jeopardize her survival, Chikako shouldn't know what Tsukiko can do, what she knows.

"What do you mean by that?" Chikako's voice is small, her dark green eyes downcast and looking at the sides.

"I know the future, and I know the past." Tsukiko is a fool; why is she continuing? "These caves are only the brass bars of the birdcage that holds me. I will break lose the moment I smell the fresh air, I will break loose once I know the time is ready." Lies. She doesn't know shit about being ready, she doesn't know shit about anything here. She doesn't even know who's alive outside and how much she can control. She doesn't know shit.

Tilting her face to look at the small girl, Chikako opens her mouth. "How do you know so much?"

"This world is nothing but…" What is the word she's looking for? "-fiction, this world is nothing but a dream where I am from."

Chikako's eyes widen slightly and she grimaces. "H-How is that possible?"

"I don't know. I'm not sure I want to know."

* * *

Yellow-tinted dust covers her rose-red elbows and knees, burning the still sensitive flesh, and a cough racks throughout her body. Tsukiko's caught some bug after returning, and it seems like it's never going to go away. Her throat is scratchy and it hurts to breath when she is training.

But that isn't going to stop her from doing it.

Her opponent, Yasuo, freezes, watching her boney form hacking up her throat. He doesn't seem to understand what's happening to Tsukiko so he takes a step back.

"Hey," He calls from his position not only six feet away from her. "You alright?"

Tsukiko doesn't answer, trying to hold her own, but she does lay down on her side when she's finished with the harsher coughs.

He doesn't really care about why she's coughing, does he? He only cares about why she's delaying their spar.

Typical.

Rolling back onto her feet, swaying a little, Tsukiko moves into something similar to a footballers crouch, her feet spread wide and a hand on her knee while the other on the ground. She nods her head towards Yasuo, signalling to him that she's ready to commence the fighting.

He doesn't seem too happy with fighting her when her face is so pale and sticky with sweat and her eyes can't focus on anything. His reluctance is normal, Tsukiko should probably assume, but what does he know about sickness. He hasn't been in here as long as she. This is his first life.

The talk Tsukiko had with Chikako-sensei was only a day ago but yet it feels like weeks. The concept that she is not alone in this world, that she could be staring into a stranger's eyes and they know what she does, is terrifying. What kind of powers could they have, would they know the information that she does, or would they be as innocent as the next person and only know that they've been born into a world with a seemingly outdated mindset and violent upbringing.

Tsukiko wonders if it's like this in the other worlds, where the moment they die is the moment they are conceived again. She feels as if she could've done so much with her previous life, but she's only thinking that because of the shitstain of a world this is, that she's had it easy for her whole life until this point.

This is her punishment. This is what she gets; this is what she deserves.

Yasuo is settled into his stance, something like hers but much more suited for his fighting style. He rushes towards her and she lets out a warrior's cry.

* * *

A month has passed and she has yet to see hide or hair of Takeo. She and Chikako have gotten significantly closer, talking about things in their pasts that only they would know. It's a complete and utter bond of trust that they're setting up in each other.

As far as Tsukiko knows Chikako isn't actually Aino, that she didn't actually know Ootsutsuki Kaguya, that this is all just a lie. She's sure that Chikako could be lying, but the way that she talks about the ancient woman, the way she acts and fidgets with her clothing, gives her feelings away. There is nothing more truthful than baring yourself to your demons, to what you've been hiding forever.

There are many theories that the duo have made together to explain their second births. Chikako says she doesn't remember anything in between then and now, so there is a considerable gap between her death and rebirth. Tsukiko's situation is much harder to explain as she literally came from a different universe.

While Tsukiko and Chikako get closer together, Tsukiko can see that her relationship with Kyoko is growing as well. They spar almost every day, they talk about things that they've already talked about, they create contests to push their limits with the shikotsumyaku. They take care of each other's hair.

Since they know nigh nothing on hair care, Tsukiko has to ' _guess_ ' how things work. She tells Kyoko and Anzu and the boys that they should brush their hair from the tips to the roots, saying that it hurts less and doesn't take as long.

They don't do much with their hair, only leaving it down with where it splits in a jagged formation. It takes too long to place it in the tradition buns and bells the rest of the clan does, so everyone's hair looks the same. The only thing that Tsukiko identifies other people is is how long their hair is.

Yasuo and Masato have fairly short hair, tips ending at the shoulders. Hirohito and Anzu have longer hair, but compared to Tsukiko's and Kyoko's they're put to shame.

Tsukiko often times forgets that her hair grows at all, the way that it stays over her shoulders and how used she is to having long bangs at her side never bothering her. It's only when Kyoko has to help her brush her hair is when she realizes it, then blushing at how inconvenient it could get but she still brushes it off like nothing.

They still make the combs. The designs have eventually leaked into their teeth, taking more time and more concentration. Kyoko's chakra precision is second to none in this cave, although it does come at a close shave with Tsukiko's, who seems to be growing everyday in this hell. Hirohito is another close call, but he's mostly the buffer between the rest and Kyoko and Tsukiko. He makes it seem like Anzu, Masato, and Yasuo are not just really weak.

It seems that they are getting closer every time they challenge each other. It seems that they are getting stronger as they get closer. Tsukiko knows it is only time that will divide them.

* * *

 _Original word count; 5,297_

 _Due to personal issues I may not be able to update next week, but I will still try to write; so expect a longer chapter in a fortnight._

 _I'm not exactly sure I like how this came out. I'm still weary about the whole 'left in a cave for two weeks with literally nothing to eat and drink', but it turned out a tad bit better than expected._

 _I'm still trying to get as much bonding as possible between Tsukiko and Chikako and Kyoko, but I guess that can come the next update. Sadly, the next update, like previously stated, will be delayed, but there will be a higher word count than the normal 5k. The next chapter should skip throughout the years and rush to the point where she's ready to leave the caves and shit, but my plot for the scene still has holes that I'll have to cover up._

 _Expect to see some cannon characters in the next two/three chapters. If you have any questions you can PM me, or just ask in the comments and I'll respond in the PM._


	7. Where Things Tell and Where Things Let

Chikako sits next to Tsukiko, her hand placed neatly inside the other. They haven't spoken a word in almost ten minutes, but it's a comfortable silence that envelops them. Just the breathes of their partner is enough to calm the usually bland or toxic air.

Their companionship has only grown in the past months, from talking about their pasts and what they wished for the future, and Chikako views Tsukiko as a child of her own. It.. it feels different to be viewed as a child of someone who loves the way Chikako does.

Tsukiko is a grown woman, damn it, she doesn't need to be seen as one. But… it doesn't mean she doesn't like the attention she lacked in this life and the past.

"Tell me more of your world." Comes Chikako's demure voice. Ever since Tsukiko spoke of where she came from, Chikako seems to have taken a liking to it. Maybe the mere thought of a world where death only happened of old age, where things became inconvenient as the technology grew. "Tell me more of the stories you were told as a child, please."

The scent of sweat and blood is prominent in this room, as a fight broke out between Yasuo and Hirohito not too long ago. When Chikako had to break them apart they were already bloody and bruised, swearing at each other to fight again.

"The tale of _Cinderella_ is like no other." Tsukiko begins, the now foreign word odd on her tongue. "Once, in a world not like ours, there lived a kingdom. In this kingdom there was a prince, ready to be married. But, because his parents wanted him to be happy, they had to hold a... party for him."

Translating words is very hard for her, but she manages to find a crude way of saying it. Tsukiko has already told Chikako of this predicament, who did nothing but support her in learning more of this language.

" _Cinderella_ was a slave to her stepmother and sisters, wicked beings with the tastes like the _mononoke_. The prince, the eldest and only son of the reigning monarch, was… excited, to say the least..."

Days could go on this way, telling stories and myths from their times. It's nice to learn things that are long gone, Tsukiko thinks, and it's nice to remember things from long ago.

* * *

Ducking under a punch from Anzu, Tsukiko drops on a shoulder and knees her opponent in the gut, elbows supporting her body off the ground while her knee digs into Anzu's abdomen. Both of them gasp; Anzu out of pain and Tsukiko out of exhaustion.

Anzu lifts her elbow and drops her body on top of Tsukiko, digging the appendage into ribs and holding down the spazzing girl. Tsukiko's muscles spasm in between the bony appendage, causing her eyes to widen and roll out of the way.

She would've kicked the girl, but she is in no position to do something like that. Especially after the move that Anzu just did.

An itching feeling comes over Tsukiko as she stands back on her feet, eyes narrowed and tracking the position of her opponent, she leans heavily on her toes and her back is hunched over. A low growl ripples through her chest, low and threatening, there is a moment where Anzu stands straight in a moment of fear.

Dancing out of the way of a hastily thrown punch, she tosses her body to avoid the other arm. Sweat streaks down her forehead and chin, dripping down her neck and chest. The metallic scent of old and dried blood mixed with the salty ting of sweat brings back the aging memories of Bishamon-sensei and Atsuko-sensei.

It's odd how fast time moves.

Bounding back to Anzu Tsukiko throws back a fist and smashes it on the suspecting face. Shock is evident in Anzu's eyes, but that doesn't stop her from falling to the ground with an audible thud.

Tsukiko drops down on top of the girl, her knees digging inside Anzu's armpits as she hammers the other fist on her chest.

A gasp leaves the downed person's throat and someone takes Tsukiko from the back of her once silver kimono. The distinctive sound of tearing cloth ripples through the air as she's thrown across the room.

"That's enough, Tsukiko-kun." Chikako says, dragging Anzu up from her green kimono sleeve. "While Bishamon-san's teaching method is very effective in a battle, it isn't in teaching young one's to hold a stable sense of training."

"I've killed a boy while under the tutelage of Bishamon-sensei." Tsukiko states, taking a wary step back. Chikako makes a weird face at her, but doesn't comment. "I'm sure that there have been and will be worse teachers."

Taking a glance to be sure that Anzu is alright, Chikako sighs. "Yes, that has been reported. But that doesn't mean you can do that in this group. You're a good girl, Tsukiko-kun, I don't want to send you away to another teacher."

Tsukiko bobs her head in response.

* * *

Taking a step forwards, Tsukiko drops into a squat in front of Kyoko, her back towards the older girl. Soft giggles erupt from the body behind her, but all she does is lean back until her shoulders hit knees.

"There, there," A hand pats down on greasy and dirty hair. "The sensei can no longer put you down for simply commencing with the training."

"It never happened in the last spars." Tsukiko mutters under her breath, cranking her neck to look at Kyoko's face from her position. "I even got further than that. It felt like I was with Bishamon-sensei and that last spar with Chinatsu. _Why do new things confuse me so_."

Another chortle escapes Kyoko's throat. "The new things confuse you is because you have never seen different. I guess it can happen when we live under a giant rock."

"Yeah…" A sigh escapes Tsukiko's mouth, she looks back down at the ground. "This is probably the only thing we'll ever know."

Kyoko nods in agreement, grimacing a little. She digs her knees in Tsukiko's back, aggravating the bruise that Anzu gave her in that fight weeks ago. It's healed up nicely, but that doesn't stop it from giving her ghost pains of what it used to be.

"I heard that once we are a few years older we'll be sent on mission. I know that Chokichi-sempai has already taken his first mission." Kyoko says, bringing her hands down to entangle themselves on Tsukiko's scalp. Tsukiko almost purrs at the contact. "He said that no one should do such things like what this clan does. I wonder what he was talking about."

"Nothing ever gets better the older we get." Tsukiko says, stating that fact like it should be placed on a golden trophy. "We're just lucky that we scored ourselves with Chikako-sensei. I'm sure that we would've gotten someone even worse than Bishamon-sensei if she wasn't around."

Kyoko hums an agreement.

Tsukiko feels a tug at her hair, and looks up at the other girl with a questioning glance. She's smiling, looking at Tsukiko with a warm gaze that only Tsukiko gets.

"I promise you that I'll stay around." She whispers as she pulls some chunks of hair away from her face. "Promise me you'll stay safe."

Warmth blossoms on Tsukiko's neck and face. A familiar beat erupts in her ears and a voice sings her a song.

 _Kiss my eyes and lay me to sleep_

...

 _Think me naive_

...

 ** _I promise you a heart you'd promise to keep_**

...

* * *

That song is a song that she thought she'd never remember. It was a joke with her long gone friends. _It was all just a joke._

This is something that Tsukiko thought she'd never do in this life. _Sing_. Sing to a friend.

Sing to a _friend_ about _unfaithfulness_.

Tsukiko feels bad about doing it, but the sudden promise that left Kyoko's lips left her in a shellshock that made her feel… vulnerable.

Friends before Kyoko have made promises like that, and those promises from before had to be broken. Toxic relationships were and still are not on her list of achievements.

It's like a prophecy. She has the worst memory now that she's so old, and it makes things weird that it's _this particular song that came to mind. Why would a song, with a meaning like this one, suddenly rear its ugly head the way it did._

 _Why._

There are so other songs that she sang in the previous life, there are so many other options, with a better beat and better vocals and better lyrics, that her mind could've picked.

While there is the fact that this could all be a coincident, that what Kyoko said has no meaning or relation to the song, that nothing will be faithless and nothing will be gone.

* * *

Six, white haired, exhausted and battle worn children sit in a circle, their sensei standing in the center of it all. Her hands are on her hips, a stern look on her face as she looks at the tops of their heads.

"There are multiple reasons why I don't let you fight the way that the other sensei's do." Chikako starts, pivoting on a heel to look at the other children. "And as you know Kyoko and Tsukiko has had previous teachers like that. If there are questions, ask them. But I will not tolerate you harassing them for information. That is for the enemy, not comrades."

"But why do you teach us so differently? Did you have a sensei that taught you the way you do to us?" Yasuo asks, tilting his head to look at their teacher. "And why does it matter? We're going to have to kill some day."

Chikako thinks for less than a moment before answering Yasuo's question. "I teach you the way I do because I know how things can get and I feel… morally wrong when I see students - friends; family - kill each other. It matters because things can't get worse than this."

It's silent for a handful of heartbeats, which is only counted because of the confusion radiating off of them.

"What does ' _morally_ ' mean?" Inquiries Anzu, raising a hand above her hand to catch the attention of Chikako.

"It… it's what's right. What makes us human, what divides us from an animal." It's an honest answer, at least.

"Why does morality have an impact on how you teach us? Shouldn't we aim to get stronger, regardless of the impact it has on our _friend-life_?" This time Hirohito speaks, sitting in the formal seiza, the balls of his heels hidden by his pants.

"There are better things you can do in your life. It may be your only chance at happiness."

Tsukiko mutters a _'I second that'_ under her breath. Not even Kyoko, who is sitting next to her, hears her.

Sighing, Chikako pivots on her heel again, turning to face Tsukiko and Kyoko. "There are things in life that should be treasured, but this isn't the kind of life where things should. Everyone, stand up. I want to show you something."

They follow her instructions, some, like Masato and Yasuo, make a whining sound. Tsukiko is slow with her movements, slowly rising from the ground and taking a small step back.

Cracking her knuckles, Chikako bounces lightly on her toes. Her woolen clothing bouncing with the movements and a small laugh escapes her throat.

Tsukiko is now on edge, but it isn't the odd laugh that Chikako just did, no, it's the predatory look in her eyes. She's never seen something like that in her sensei's face before, and it's very off putting. Especially at a time like this

She's gone from her spot, leaving behind nothing, not hide nor hair, in her place. Not nothing. Not even a whisper of where she could've gone.

Yasuo audibly gasps and Anzu quickly places her body into a self-protective stance. Kyoko visibly tenses up and Hirohito lets out an unsavory string of sentences and words.

Then there's a whoosh, a human screech, then a crackling of bones against bones and a wet thump of skin against stone as someone is kicked to the ground. Tsukiko can feel her muscles tense under thin skin and an eerie presence behind her back.

Her instincts kick in on that moment and she drops to a knee, swinging the other one out to swipe at the offender. The hard thump of her bony knee on the hard ground makes her wince, but she attempts to ignore it as she's pushed back a few feet. It takes a moment to process whats going on before she cracks a small smile.

Chikako's doing this to scare them.

Playing along with the games, Tsukiko opts to put up a fight.

Chikako's elbow comes up from above to crash down on Tsukiko's shoulder, but she narrowly misses as Tsukiko drops and rolls onto her back, an excited and probably fearful squeal leaving her lips. She sees Kyoko bounding away with a stick of yellow-white bone grasped tightly in her hands.

Feeling the sudden urge to show off, Tsukiko decides then and there that she's going to pull out the big guns.

Her sensei and momentary opponent is now in front of her face, shoulders turned and an arm cranked back for a powerful punch to the throat. She stands up now, not wasting a moment to summon chakra to her back, ribs, elbows, and knees. The hot feeling of chakra coursing through her veins is a welcoming thing, something that Tsukiko thought she'd never say in this life.

Especially since being born into a life like this.

An uncommon and most likely unseen grin over takes her features, and another squeal leaves her lips. Little bones protrude out of the selected spots, hardening the surrounding flesh and opening the skin. This isn't the first time she's done this, but it's the first time she's done it on the heat of the moment.

Hopefully things don't go south.

Tsukiko doesn't give Chikako the chance to hit her, instead she dances away like something akin to a goddess, doing a backflip and landing on her hands to jump back to her feet. She avoids the series of hits that Chikako tries to land, only to fall behind and get jabbed in the stomach. It takes the breath out of her, but she continues moving.,

Taking time to get herself ready again, Tsukiko feels adds chakra to her knuckles, strengthening the bones underneath.

A gasp somehow passes its way through Tsukiko's lips as she's suddenly pushed from the back, a short pain blooming on her face as her face plants on the ground. Chikako lunges, but the already formed bones that protrudes from hardened skin keeps the fallen one safe from the following assault of her back.

When Chikako takes a step back, seen as a mocking gesture, Tsukiko rolls back to her feet with determination haunting her every step. This takes the older woman by surprise, as she's never seen a person like Tsukiko with this kind of determination in either of her lives.

While these two women share the same similarities, rebirth, their cases are all the different. One was a handmaiden to a literal goddess while the other floated about the easiest and best paying jobs.

But that mere train of thought doesn't stop Chikako from attacking Tsukiko. She moves forward with her non-dominant hand, apparently not bothering her opponent as she simply swipes it away.

Apparently Chikako forgot that Tsukiko is ambiguous.

This time Tsukiko goes offensive, leaping forward to take a bite out of the hand that was so kindly handed to her. Chikako quickly swipes her hand away but that takes precious time that she now no longer has. Tsukiko uses this to her advantage, swiping a short leg out to trip up her sensei.

Being the larger one of the two, it's easy for Chikako to not fall, but it's hard for her to see her students plan, letting out a short shout of surprise as a bone-studded fist flies to her face. While this is her first set of students, and her first time to finding someone like her, she's surprised that this one person who has been reborn is so smart, so clever and witty in a scene like this, especially since Tsukiko wasn't born with the knowledge of martial arts and was first born in a world where violence is frowned upon.

There has been worse things to cross Chikako's path, but an anomaly like Tsukiko is something she's sure will cause a road block.

The punch that her student sends her sends her to the ground, a thunderous and unheard of laugh escaping the little girl. While less than half her height, Tsukiko can pack quite the punch. The power and talent in this girl is so deep yet so bare.

Chikako doesn't have time before a yellow-white, straight, and shikotsumyaku-made bone is shoved in her face.

She also knows that Tsukiko is very talented in staff wielding.

A knowing smirk crosses Tsukiko's face, and it's apparent that she also knows that she has finally trumped the sensei. The other students are hiding, forego Kyoko, who has her own short blade in front of her body, standing almost twenty feet away, only feet away from a short but small tunnel that an adult like Chikako won't be able to navigate.

Tsukiko can see that Chikako wants to admit defeat, but she also knows that this is a game to show her other students what other senseis are like. While she will say that this kind of tactic will probably frighten the inexperienced six year olds, she isn't going to condemn her teacher for showing them that they have it easy.

The yellow staff in Chikako's face inches closer until it presses against the tip of her nose. It's a wonderful feeling, Tsukiko thinks, such a wonderful feeling to power over those that have more of it. The staff is yanked away from the white and unafraid face and jabbed towards the older woman's stomach, only battering the cloth as Tsukiko is yanked away from her position above her sensei.

Hirohito hooks his arms underneath Tsukiko's armpits and hands locked behind her neck, pushing her head forwards and arms up. Her bone staff clatters on the stone floors, the sound rattles off the walls and into their ears.

The boy grunts under her strength and at the sides of her eyes Tsukiko sees the other children emerging from their positions behind rocks and inside nooks. They're scared, she can see clearly in their wide eyes, even Anzu is foregoing her open yet cold exterior for the shocked and scared one.

The feeling that Tsukiko gets when she realizes that she's the one that made them this way makes her lift her feet off the ground, forcing Hirohito to take on all of her weight. While she's not as tall as him, she has the most experience in this, she has the most power to get out of a hold like this with someone of his calibre holding her.

He staggers back, leaning heavily on his heels and thrusting her up and leaning back, almost dropping her on her head as he tries to support her and keep steady. His shoulders are arched backwards and Tsukiko can see the floor above her head. This position makes her head reel, but she makes use of it by swinging her legs back down then tossing them up again, flipping over her head and she's back on her feet behind Hirohito, taking a step back before he falls on her toes.

Chikako is now standing with her own bone staff in hand, standing close to Tsukiko's smaller staff before suddenly kicking it away. Now that her main weapon is gone, she has two options.

Take on both Hirohito and Chikako head on, or simply make another staff.

She opts for the latter.

Focusing her chakra into the back of her wrist, she forces it into something like a circle, then pushes it all out. She wastes almost no chakra with the precision and the execution. Feeling her mind cloud with the inevitable pride, Tsukiko smacks the butt of the staff down on the back of Hirohito's heel as he tries to crawl away from her, ignoring the hot blood drip down her hand.

He lets out a whimper and Tsukiko blocks an attack from her sensei. She holds her staff with two hands and redirects the stick in Chikako's hand to her side, using her momentum to lift a leg to kick at the back of Chikako's knee.

While she is short, she makes all of that up in strength. Chikako falls to the ground with a gasp, almost letting Tsukiko to get onto of her with studded knuckles and a staff in the other hand.

The other children seem to get the hint that Hirohito was trying to do, and they jump Tsukiko. Kyoko holds back, still in her corner. It doesn't faze Tsukiko that she's fighting multiple opponents, she's done that before, but what does faze her is that she's fighting some of the most _inexperienced_ children in this cave system.

It's all a fucking joke to her.

She is, once again, pushes off of Chikako with a warrior crying Yasuo, his larger body slamming into her smaller form. Her head whips to the side, and her brain rattles inside her skull.

Her movements are a little too slow for her liking, but she still manages to get away with a claw to Yasuo's face and a back kick to the one approaching behind. They both let out pained shouts, but that doesn't stop the other two from attempting to take her on from behind. With a swipe of her staff, she slams it on the ground, the sound bouncing off the walls and startling Anzu who's foot only stands centimeters away.

Anzu jumps into her stance, feet wide and squatting, and leaps forward with her fist trailing behind. This movement doesn't startle Tsukiko as much as Anzu thought, but it's still better than nothing. Tsukiko avoids the punch, taking a step to the side, but that doesn't mean Anzu is done.

Her outstretched fist follows Tsukiko's face like a magnet, managing to scrape the bottom side of her cheek. It doesn't hurt, so Tsukiko retaliates with her own punch, her fist digging into Anzu's stomach.

A gasp leaves Anzu's lips, tempting Tsukiko further on in her onslaught. Her heart rate rises exponentially, her face reddening and body beginning to tremble. As adrenaline floods into her veins it becomes harder and harder for her to properly stand.

Blocking a hit from the now appeared Masato Tsukiko feels her knees turn to jelly. The adrenaline turns into fear for that moment, but it only lasts a moment before it turns into determination.

While her body still trembles in the adrenaline it's more controllable with the surges of determination and aid of chakra. It, be it the determination or chakra or fear or adrenaline, runs hot in her blood, aiding her as she sparta kicks Masato away from her to twist and block a hit from Yasuo with a stray arm.

She falls back, though, looking for an escape route. It's pointless, though. She's surrounded, and Chikako's gone, disappeared somewhere in the void. The determination ends quickly, leaving her panting and trembling like a wet and cold dog.

 _Pathetic_ , something whispers in her ears, _you can't even take on **children**. _

Tsukiko shakes off the thought, thinking of something lighter and not so destructive.

She thinks of a way to defeat her opponents. This started out as game game, but she's going to end it as a war.

Slipping as fast as she can, she moves forward, taking Hirohito by the hair and Anzu by the neck of her yukata. She tosses one of them to Yasuo and the other to Masato. In a moment of confusion, she ends up follow Hirohito who she threw at Masato, only to hit them both on the back of the neck, hitting them hard enough that their heads collide to the ground with a hollow _thud_ and short cry of pain.

She takes care of the other two by kicking their faces until their noses flow red and eyes close shut.

Someone clears their throat behind her hunched body over Anzu and Masato, partially scaring the sweating girl to tripping over her feet as she tries to turn around to face the person. Chikako stands there, hands on hips as she inspects the scene laid out before her.

"I thought that I have already told you that you can't just kill them all." She states, dark green eyes then drop up and down Tsukiko's exhausted body.

"They-"

"Are not dead, I know."

"Where did you go?"

"I had to see where Kyoko went. I still cannot find her."

Tsukiko nods her head, pivoting on her heel to point at the black and small hole in the wall about thirty feet away. "She should be in there."

"...Thank you..."

* * *

A content sigh escapes Tsukiko's lips as she curls closer to the wall of her nook, forehead touching the warming rockwall. A few months ago, after the scare that Chikako put her other four students into, they began to make their training sessions harder, more violent that the last. This leaves everyone, foregoing Tsukiko and Kyoko, in a sore state that leaves everyone hostile and devil may care.

Anzu, Masato, Yasuo, and Hirohito's blooming aggressiveness leaves Tsukiko mentally tired, having to deal with their incessant and unstoppable complaints of pain and exhaustion. If it weren't for Chikako's constant eyes on her back she is sure that she would have killed one of them by now.

Chikako sits in front of Tsukiko's nook, her back pressed against the stone and her head lolling inside.

"Now that I look at it, your eyes seem to be growing paler by the day, Tsukiko-kun." She comments, voice strained by her current position.

"I think that can happen as a child ages. But with all of this bloodline and chakra bullshit everything's kind of growing from hell."

"Well, what can you say?" Chikako shrugs, rough clothes rasping against the cold stone. Tsukiko can smell the sweet and vile scent of something rotting. "When you've lived a life before chakra it kind of... 'screws you over', I guess. You'll get used to this is due time, I'm sure."

"Are you really?" Tsukiko muses, pursing her lips together. "I know that I'm decent at adapting to a lot of situations, but that was back when my anxieties helped me at knife-point and it was illegal to kill someone out of fury or revenge."

"That must have been harsh of the warriors"

"There were no warriors. Only soldiers, pawns of the government that dictated almost every right to be yourself."

Chikako is silent, she doesn't do anything that says she's anxious or scared or anything else. They sit like this for a few more moments before Chikako sighs.

"That must have been even worse, I guess." She says, a short chuckle escaping her lips, "Who would want to dictate people's personalities?"

"Crazy old geezers, that's who."

It's silent again, and it only gives reason for Tsukiko dream of what things could've been if she was still alive, is she was still in her previous life. She's sure her mother would've thrown a fit about her hospital bills, bitching about why she can't pay them on her own.

She's never liked her mother before, but that's all in the past and the past should remain the way it is. Once done there is no coming back.

"I remember when you told me that story about that one maiden, _Cinderella_ , I believe it is." Chikako suddenly says, breaking Tsukiko out of her thoughts and the foreign word falling odd on her lips. "That sounds familiar, but I can't place it."

"I know that where I am from that there are many stories that influenced how this world was created." Tsukiko says, "So it's probable that you know stories like Cinderella."

Tsukiko's sure that the mere thought that she knows the future and past intimidates Chikako. She feels bad about that, but at the same time she doesn't care. She doesn't care that she scares Chikako, but she cares because Chikako is a friend.

"Yes, but if that's true, then do you not know a story similar to _Cinderella_?" Chikako asks.

"No, because I know most western stories. This world was highly influenced by eastern folk tales, which I mostly don't know."

* * *

Five months have passed after Chikako upped their training regime. The exhaustion leaves them bitter and hostile, but that only feeds their energy in battle.

They've grown muscles, Tsukiko's and Kyoko's arms and legs becoming defined and strong while the others are finally coming in. Tsukiko, while only a year younger than the rest, she is the tallest of them, and Chikako says that quite a few children from the shikotsumyaku group are naturally taller than the rest, and the it's mostly women who get this trait.

She's seven years old, and she's very angry. Tsukiko has yet to see hide or hair of Takeo, even after all these months. She still remembers how to do what he taught her, but she only wishes to learn more. What scared him away the first time?

Kyoko now shares a nook with Tsukiko again, now bunking in a newly found hole that smells like piss and rot. It's much larger than the one she slept in alone, but it doesn't make a difference with the body next to her.

The body next to her moves, her bony back pressing against bony back, and a sigh leaves her body. Kyoko is awake, and Tsukiko congratulates herself for such wonderful deduction skills.

"I'm eight," Says the older child as if she's confessing pregnancy. "Chokichi-sempai was seven when he left his group."

"He probably had a more competent sensei." Tsukiko responds, voice groggy and too high for her liking. "More competent than Bishamon-sensei or Atsuko-sensei or Chikako-sensei."

"Can you sing me that song?"

"You know I'm not a good singer."

"I don't know what a good singer is."

The song that she sang to Kyoko all those months ago has now become a favorite. The only reason why it's a favorite is because it's the only noise that she remembers from her past life, and it's the only noise that blocks out the suffocating buzzing in this bland place.

And she sings.

Her voice isn't the best - she doesn't even try, to be honest - but she hits the notes as best as she can. She hasn't heard the language in six years, consonants are soft and vowels are often hard to make. But she still tries, she tries to remember what the song was about and what it sounded like.

It's all for Kyoko. She doesn't deserve to be in this kind of place, that's why Tsukiko hangs around her so much. They should be in a place that is not this place, somewhere that isn't here.

That's the only thing they have in common. That's why Tsukiko considers her a friend, even if she's horrible at keeping them.

...

 _This is what I brought you, this is what you can keep_

...

 _This is what I brought, you may forget me._

* * *

 ** _Original word count; 5,471_**

 _I am the absolute worse at planning. My schedual changed and I thought that I wouldn't have enough time to write, but then I did and holy shit did I write. Half of next weeks chapter is planned and a fourth is actually written._

 _I didn't plan on this chapter being posted, but when I saw that I had already reached my quota yesterday I decided to cut what I want for next week and leave the rest here._

 _Don't you ever listen to me when I say that I won't be able to upload, because I'll probably call bs and still post the new chapter._

 _Also, the song is called Kiss my eyes and lay me to sleep by AFI. I don't even listen to their songs because I'm not really into that kind of music, 'cause I'm a total metal head, **Sabaton all the way, man** , but this one caught my ears and I needed something to fill in the scene, so this is what I got. I know that this song will come up in the next few chapters, so there's that._

 _Mononoke is a vengeful spirit._


	8. Where Things Begin and Where Things End

The bone staffs slap together in a deadly way, the fight only increasing in aggression as it continues. A grunt is heard somewhere, then a bodily thud.

It's her opponent who fell, Hirohito. He glowers at her from his position below, hands knitted into a yellowing fist and green eyes peering back at her with the hardness of a war veteran. Being one of the more reasonable of the children she's seen here, she's surprised at his hate.

His actions are quick as he gets up again, sawing on his feet as if he were on a boat. His staff is still in his hands, seemingly cracked in various places, red dots it in places that weren't there before.

She's bleeding. She didn't feel it, but she knows that sticks like these don't stab, they bruise. Tsukiko knows that she'll feel it later, definitely.

Hirohito charges at her, his face contorted and warped into a snarl, rose and red dusting his cheeks and nose as he sweats out his morning meal, and a sound ripping from the back of his throat. He is only feet away from her when his staff comes down on her from up above, the swipe leaves an impression in the air and a swoosh as it comes closer to her; she only slides to the side, jabbing his ribs with her own staff in the process.

The air leaves his throat in a vocal manner, his groan of pain and surprise ripples through the air almost like a scream. Tsukiko doesn't stop, no, Tsukiko keeps her assault on him, jabbing him on the spine, shoulders, and later to the ribs on the other side. She dances like the water and the snow fall, swirling to avoid his attempts at a hit on her.

He does hit her though, it was a mistake, honestly, easily avoidable, but it still happened, he catches her on her inner thigh. It's a hard jab, and it's enough for her to feel the lightning of pain and nerves tingle together like a web of torment. The pain flashes white in her eyes and body, her leg going cold before turning numb for a few seconds.

She is, unlike him, silent in her agony, biting her lips until the bleed in an effort to hide her feelings. Tsukiko can taste the metallic liquid in her mouth, and the urge to spit it out is immense, but she just swallows it down and faces Hirohito with a steely face.

Hirohito lays there on his stomach, looking at her with a face she doesn't know how to translate. He doesn't move, his staff lays there, half on his legs and half on the floor, his face bruised and lips dyed red, bleeding like hers.

His face moves, eye close for a second before blinking themselves back open, and with a young and husky voice he says; " _Yield_."

Tsukiko backs down, taking a step back and shoving her hands into her armpits. She can feel the bile rise in her throat as she tastes more of the blood in her mouth, feel that aching on her lips and the twitching bruise on her back.

So that's where he hit her. She feels the warm blood cascading down her back, slightly surprised she didn't feel that when it was first inflicted.

Then her whole body feels like it's been thrown into a volcano, white hot pain encasing her like a cocoon and swallowing her mind and voice.

* * *

"Can you tell me some of the stories you grew up with?"

"This is a first. I wonder what's going on in that head of yours."

"Well, I'd thought about it for a while, and I know how much I tell you about my world. It's about time you told me about you."

"I guess it's time I tell you about how I grew up. Since I was the handmaiden most of my life my mother wasn't able to tell me stories like yours."

"I know that. You can just talk about what you know, what happened. Hell, you died so long ago that events may as well be folklore now."

* * *

Yellow and blue danced across her skin, leaving her in pain and misery until they healed. They protrude from her back, a now very sensitive spot for her. She doesn't wear the top part of her yukata now, leaving it hanging from her sides, supported by the weathered obi. Chikako gave her chest binds to cover herself up, saying that they are very useful, but Tsukiko doesn't use them.

It's not like anyone she doesn't know is going to see her indecency. Tsukiko still keeps the binds as they are probably the newest things she's ever held in this life.

She still has to spar, which has now become a very painful activity. Chikako says that it's a very important life skill to know how to keep going on in any kind of situation with any kind of injury.

Tsukiko would love to call bullshit, but she can see that something has happened to Chikako. Something happened and she wants them to learn the most that they can.

And whatever it is that's able to scare Chikako Tsukiko's sure that it's enough to scare the rest of the team. She's never seen Chikako so violent, so urgent to have them get stronger and stronger in the span of a day.

It's when Chikako makes them fight each other in teams, no alliances and no friends, is when Tsukiko finally sees what's happening. She wants them to leave. She doesn't want them around anymore.

When Tsukiko was still in contact with Chokichi-sempai she remembers him saying something about learning to take on multiple foes in battle. he said that it's one of the last tests before they're assigned a larger group with non-shikotsumyaku users and sent out on ' _missions_ '.

What these mission pertain, though, is something that she already knows about. It may have been almost a decade since she last seen the show but she knows that the Kaguya are the Grim Reaper's friend. She knows that they kill for shits and giggles, they are one of the most unstable clans out there, outside of that one genjutsu wielding clan.

The thought of losing her sanity is something she doesn't think about often, but she knows it's going to happen sooner or later if she keeps on going down this trail.

* * *

"I hope you do realize that you martyred yourself to a living goddess."

"And I hope that you realize that you died from the basic cold."

"It was pneumonia, and while I'll agree that it was easily avoidable and treatable, but I was too poor at the time to pay the fees."

"That's ridiculous."

"I know."

"Didn't you have family, friends, even, to help you?"

"No. They left me long before I died."

* * *

The boy in her grasp gasps, his face bleeding pink by the moment, and he tries to wiggle his way out of her choke hold. His long and chewed on nails biting into her arms as he tries to escape, bucking his hips into empty air, thrashing in her hold.

She tries to keep him down, to keep her on top her, but his erratic moving keeps her from keeping her hold on him.

He lets out a whine, white and jagged teeth appearing from under his lips. She doesn't know what he wants, but she does know that he's not getting it.

Eventually her arms become numb from the beatings she's enduring. Tsukiko knows she can keep on going, she knows that she can last forever if she has the motivation, but the salty ting of sweat and metallic scent of blood prominent in the air makes the bile rise her her throat. Her stomach rolls under her skin and Masato elbows her in the gut.

She lets him go, kicking him at the small of his back, and rolling over to the other side to vomit. The sweet, sour, and acidic scent of her small morning meal is prominent in the air. Tsukiko hears the gags of Masato from behind her and the groans of Yasuo and Hirohito.

A large hand is placed on her back, brushing dirty white hair out of her face as she spits out her stomach acids from her mouth. Her stomach rolls again but she only gags as there's nothing left in her stomach.

Tsukiko hears Chikako cooing, although that doesn't stop her from growling and attempting to get away from the older woman. But Chikako doesn't let her go, she grabs hold her her shoulders and pushes her back down, taking note of where the pitiful pile of half digested rice and animal remains.

"You shouldn't always push yourself like that." Chikako says, wrapping an arm under Tsukiko's shoulders and knees, picking her up bridal-style, "If you didn't feel right you should've just told me."

"I didn't feel anything." Tsukiko rasps out, "Masato elbowed me and that's when I puked. I'm not sick."

"Oh, I'm sure of it." Chikako dismisses, her voice smooth and passive. "But I need you on tip top shape, so just take the rest of the day off; bring Kyoko with you if you want, even, no need to be lonely _and_ sick."

"I don't need to take a break, Chikako-sensei," Tsukiko snaps, hating the way that there's no ground beneath her feet, that Chikako walks with a sway and she feels seasick even though she's far from any source of water. "Put me down. Now."

"Don't be so mean, Tsukiko-kun, I know you need to rest." Chikako whines, eyebrows twitching and lips curling into an annoyed smile. She places Tsukiko at the entrance of a nook, and pats her head like she's still a child.

Tsukiko scowls, flashing her teeth at the older woman. "I'm not a child, stop it."

"You are a child, abuse the privilege, it only can last for so long."

"I don't want to be a child, Aino, leave me be."

Chikako snorts, turning her face away. "Ooh, you're getting snippy. That's a first."

"Stop it. I don't like it when people do this when they know what I do."

"But I don't know what you know."

"You know what I'm talking about."

* * *

"You look sad today; what's wrong?"

"Why are you so caring?"

"I am your friend, am I not?"

"Yes, but why do you care so much?"

"Because I'm you're friend, Tsukiko."

"Kyoko, I know that you're my friend, but that doesn't mean anything when I know I'm sad about something you have literally and absolutely no control over."

"If there's something troubling you, then know that I'm always going to be here for you."

* * *

A few months pass and nothing changes. Chikako still makes them spar at every chance they get, but her treatment towards Tsukiko, and even Kyoko, remain the same. Even if Tsukiko sprains an ankle she's sent off to the side with Kyoko with her, and it's like this for almost every injury she gets.

This makes the other children, Anzu, Masato, Hirohito, and Yasuo, very jealous of her ' _friendship_ ' with their sensei. They give her dirty looks that sends her back in time when she was still in high school and still cared about what people thought of her.

So she's started making it a game, a game to see how much she can beat them and not hurt herself. She makes it a game so that she gets nothing but a scratch and they break something.

And this makes almost everyone on her team, foregoing Kyoko and Chikako, hate her. They don't like this side of her anymore, this side the used to adore and respect, all because they don't know how to fight her anymore. They don't know how to win against her anymore.

Tsukiko will admit that she likes seeing them look at her with those hateful gazes, their heads downcast but their eyes _screaming_ at her to die, and she knows that this is the kind of feeling that will be her downfall. If she doesn't get her head straight she will have a grim death and short life.

She doesn't want either of those, so she pushes the feelings away and fights for her life in these caves. These caves have fucked her so much these past months she can't remember how long it's been since she and Kyoko have been stuck with Chikako and her team. She can't remember how long ago it was when her mother sold her off to be a slave to their clan, to be formed and moulded into a monster.

It's been so long, but it's survival of the fittest under the soil that the free live on, that the sun touches and where the grass grows.

It's been so long, and she doesn't know what to do anymore.

* * *

"I enjoyed the arts when I was alive."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, I enjoyed language as well. Drawing, writing, music, you name it. I enjoyed it."

"Did you do a lot of… art?"

"No, I was a janitor for some school and was a florist up til I died."

"That sounds fun."

"Cleaning up after pubescent children and making flowers for funerals and weddings wasn't the most interesting thing. It got boring after awhile, but I needed to make money."

"And you couldn't take another job?"

"No, I didn't have the right credentials to find another job to keep my home."

* * *

Their shikotsumyaku training has remained the same throughout the months; precision with the combs, speed with the staff training, and creativity in everything in between. Chikako isn't so mean when they train with their bones, but she does make them do it much more often than the regulated spars.

She still treat Tsukiko like a child, though, and this is very... unnerving to her. Why does she insist on treating her like an infant? Why does she insist on he sitting out on a paper cut when she sends everyone back out with flesh wounds and broken bones?

Months have passed since this trend has started, the sudden increase of spars and training regimes that seem so unlike Chikako to establish. Month have passed since Chikako started to infantilize Tsukiko so much.

Tsukiko doesn't like being coddled, it's so impersonal and very insulting. But no matter what she does and says to the physically older woman she's still told - insisted, really - that she should cherish her childhood, because she doesn't know if she'll ever get another one.

She doesn't know what's more insulting; insisting that she still wants to have a childhood with all that she knows, or making her do it without her consent most of the time. As much as she likes Chikako - love, really; who else shares the same history as her? Who shares the most similarities with her? - she can't handle being treated like something that she never was and never will be; a child.

"I want you all to get into groups of..." Chikako trails off, giving them an odd look, her eyes squinting and lips stretching out into something that isn't a smile. Chikako grimaces. "Get into groups of two, there should be three groups in total."

That kind of basic math shouldn't take so long to figure out, even in a world like this. Something's going on and Tsukiko doesn't know about it.

"You will be training with chakra density with your shikotsumyaku, the heavier the staff or weapon, the better." She starts off, " I want you to create your usual weapon, then I want you to condense as much chakra into your place of choice and then remake your weapon. This makes it heavier and more personalized for you, and it can make training easier for you when your usual weighted staff and weapons become too light for you to fight properly with."

The children stand in front of her, looking at her with expectant eyes. They probably don't know how to do this already, but Tsukiko knows how to do this.

It doesn't take a genius to figure out how chakra works. Ever since her incident with Takeo's training she's been going through teaching herself about chakra theory like it's nothing. She already knows how to harden her bones - without the help of shikotsumyaku, just chakra - and she's been getting close to figuring out inhuman strength.

"Get yourself a partner, now."

The children find their partners easily enough; Anzu with Hirohito, Yasuo with Masato, and Kyoko with Tsukiko. These are their usual partnerships, their usual friendships.

They later find themselves in secluded sections of their usual training cave, each of the divided teams already having their usual staffs, then figuring out how to make them heavier, more dense. Chikako flows between them, giving them tips and demonstrating how to do it.

Kyoko sits on a flat slab of orange-tinted limestone rock, legs crossed and pale yellow staff resting on her thighs. She looks at Tsukiko before sighing.

"You already know how to do this." She states. "I don't expect any less from you."

Tsukiko snorts, turning her face to look away. "I got bored; there was nothing for me to do so I experimented."

"You're always bored. There's nothing that can ever entertain you."

"You entertain me."

"Oh," Kyoko shifts in her spot, lifting a hand to scratch at her jaw, "I'm sure I do. I am your only friend, after all."

Tsukiko nods her head, looking back at Kyoko and letting out a sheepish smirk, "And I am your only friend as well. Don't say that like you know everyone in this room like the back of your hand."

Kyoko sends her a confused look, looking at the back of her hand. Tsukiko forgot that sayings in one language don't really translate that well into another.

Feigning a snort, she looks away again, heat dusting her neck and ears in embarrassment. "You know how to interact with people better than I can, that's what I'm trying to say here."

The older girl raises her chin, a soft hum escaping her throat. "Oh." She says, almost as if she's completely lost on words to say.

A silence envelopes them, the only sound is the buzzing that echoes throughout the caves and the clatters of bone against stone as the other children try to achieve their goals.

"We should probably get to work. I'm not sure that you know how to make your bone dense, yet, have you?" Tsukiko asks, tilting her head at her long time friend. "I know I can help you."

"Yes," Kyoko mutters, sliding off her perch on the slab of golden rock, "And I'm sure you'll make a great sensei, _Tsukiko-sensei_."

 _"Please don't."_

* * *

"How come you come from the future and I the past, shouldn't there be some sort of… linear things happening here?"

"It may be from the fact that I come from a completely different universe than you. I know that you're Aino, handmaiden of Ootsutsuki Kaguya, born a thousand years ago and died a thousand years ago. I'm… I'm just me, a mistake, an anomaly born from sickness and loneliness."

"But… there are so many things wrong with-"

"There are so many things wrong with life, Chikako, but that doesn't stop it from continuing on like nothing's happening. It happens; get over it."

"Why're you so snappy today?"

"Maybe I'm snappy because I've just been pulled out of a spar that I could've easily finished."

* * *

How ever long it have been since the last time they've been told to practice with their shikotsumyaku she knows that it has been quite some time. While she isn't great with realizing how time works, she remembers how things look, how they never change.

Tsukiko is hitting her puberty. She can feel it, everything is slowly, almost unnoticeable, becoming shorter. She remembers not noticing how fast she grew in her past life, how things blended in with each other until she no longer realized how tall she was compared to everything.

Time, like death, is a fickle thing. It's different for everyone else, especially for her, and it's just the thing to fuck around with her mind.

She's growing, she's even taller than the rest of her class, and she reaches a little further than Chikako's elbows now. That's pretty tall for an eight year old, in her opinion, especially since everyone else is only a head shorter than her.

 _Especially_ since Chikako is one of the tallest in this clan, taller than even Takeo.

And, to make things worse, she still likes to wear her yukata half down, exposing her chest. She's not sure how Chikako feels about her prepubescent student half-naked, and she's not too sure if there are any rules regarding nudity, but Tsukiko knows that she likes this new feeling. She doesn't like the feeling of the chest wraps either, despite the urges of Chikako to wear them.

Chikako, in response to Tsukiko's lack of respect for modesty, starts to mimic how Tsukiko wears her yukata, to show how much 'cooler' it is to wear the wraps, saying that they even come in different colors and designs. She only gains an odd glance to her chest and a shrug.

The other students don't like her that much, their once neutral thoughts of her now becoming something akin to jealousness or even hate. Tsukiko doesn't know whether to be concerned at that, but she knows that she doesn't care.

* * *

"How many legends did you say that you were taught as a child again?"

"Dozens, and they mostly came from the northern areas of a place called England. Most from Scandinavia, some from a country called Russia. I never really learned about anything else until I managed to get my hands on some books about folklores and legends around the world. And even then I found that there was some common tales that everyone knows."

"And why is that?"

"Racism, for the most part. Pride."

"Oh."

* * *

Kyoko sits next to Tsukiko, and Chikako stands in front of them. The rest of the team sit there as well, but they are standing.

"This isn't a crucial moment in your life, so forget everything the moment you're safe," Chikako starts off, pointedly looking at Tsukiko. She feels everyone else's eyes on her. "I have taught you more than enough of what I know in writing, and most of you got the hang of the shikotsumyaku pretty well, and those are the things that you need to know. Everything else is alright for you to forget, they are not something you need to know."

"Why are you telling us this?" Hirohito asks, raising a chin and staring at their teacher, "Is it time for us to leave?"

"Yes," Chikako blurts out quickly, "Yes; it's time."

"Are we going to have to go through tests?" Mastao mutters, looking more worn than ever.

"Yes." Chikako says, sounding very sure of herself.

"What about… judges?" This time Anzu speaks, taking a step forward, "Doesn't there have to be someone to make sure you're not sending us to our premature deaths?"

Chikako is silent for a moment. "... Yes…"

"Who are they?"

"Friends…"

Tsukiko leans forward, placing her elbows on her knees, "What should we… expect out there? What should we know?"

Chikako looks at Tsukiko for another short moment, and Tsukiko senses that the older woman is becoming flustered. Why? She doesn't know. "You should look out for people," Chikako starts, "Sometimes people don't like it when you're on their lands, and sometimes they want to have fun but you don't."

It's silent for a few moments, no one moves, no one says anything. Tsukiko doesn't like these times, she doesn't like it when the ringing in her ears scream louder and louder until she can't hear her own thoughts now. These are the times that she wishes that she was never born again.

The ringing doesn't stop though, and she wishes to have some relief from it. But she doesn't know how, she doesn't want to disturb the peace that won't last long.

"There are a lot of things out there." Chikako starts, breaking the deafening silence. "But they are better than what's it here."

* * *

Kyoko's hand is tightly wrapped around Tsukiko's tattered sleeve, dragging her out of their nook and tugging her towards the familiar route of their training arena. She doesn't say anything, only giving her a look that tells Tsukiko to just _do it._

As she leads them, Tsukiko sees that there's some sort of urgency in her footsteps, that there's some sort of hidden panic. Kyoko doesn't panic. Kyoko hasn't panicked before.

For some reason, the silence, foregoing the pattering of their feet, screams in her ears, howling like a storm in a green forest. It sends of warning signals in her head, and only seems to get louder and angrier as the closer they get to Kyoko's destination.

Tsukiko can feel that something is wrong; Kyoko's stance gives it all away, and even she can feel the violent vibes ebbing off of the walls. She would feel fear if she didn't know that it's not right to feel it.

The yellow-orange walls are tinted a dreary red, making the scene surreal and almost terrifying to look at. The silence is deafening, buzzing in her ears.

Kyoko stops short at the entrance of their main training cave to send Tsukiko a weary and regretful look. The way her eyes glisten under the flames of the candles pulls something in her heart, making her believe that this has happened before. Never has she ever seen a face so distraught over something.

She knows that she will never forget this look.

Kyoko turns back sharply and literally _drags_ the now reluctant Tsukiko, pulling at her wrists to make her move faster.

The inside of their cave is very dark, even darker than the hallways. Candles lay about, their wax pooled out from their insides, and signs of battle marks the walls. Shikotsumyaku bones are scattered across the floors, some even sticking out of the rock walls, and blood is spattered around them.

Tsukiko sends Kyoko a wary look, eyes bearing into the back of her friends head. Questions rings throughout her mind; what has happened? Is someone hurt? Why did Kyoko bring her here?

She finds out as soon as Kyoko leads her to the center of the room.

There lays Chikako, green eyes open _(and showing fear- terror, anger-rage)_ and mouth parted in a silent and _eternal_ scream. Blood lays, caked, on her face, dried tears long fallen down her cheeks. There are a multitude of wounds on her neck and chest.

Her worn yukata is torn, the front showing a naked chest that was assaulted with empty and bloody holes, two jagged and yellow bones stick out. One of Chikako's hands is wrapped around one of the jagged knives at her side, the other laying on her abdomen, fingers sprawled out to cover the gaping hole there.

And Tsukiko is thrown into an oblivion.

Rage, pain, fear, grief, all of those emotions are thrown into her chest. Bile rises up in her throat, tears prickle her eyes and she sight is deterred from the broken kaleidoscope she now sees though. Her chest feels like rust has grown there, the pain miniscule against the agony she feels in her mind as she attempts to decipher what she sees now.

Pain blooms in her chest, thwarting the rust that once laid there, thwarting her attention from the body in front of her.

Her hands curl into fists and she brings them close to her chest, letting out a strangled whine. Hot tears drip from her eyes, and another sob wracks through her body. Falling to her knees, Tsukiko looks up at Kyoko.

Tears are prominent in her friend's eyes, but they don't fall as they have already done so. Now is the time for Tsukiko to cry, now is the time for Tsukiko to let it all out.

"How long-" Tsukiko gasps, her mouth open and eyes blinded by the burning tears, " _How long has she been like this_."

Kyoko finally sheds a few tears, sniffling and raising a hand to cover her face, "I don't know. I'm sorry."

" _Who_ ," Tsukiko spits out the word, voice cracking, mustering the strength to wipe away the tears on her face. Her throat hurts; her voice hurts. "Who did this. Who is responsible."

"I don't know. I'm sorry."

A wet a throaty chuckle escapes Tsukiko's lips and she finds herself weeping again, shoving her palms into her eyes, loose and greasy hair falling over her shoulder in heavy chunks. Her face is salty, and she can _taste_ the salt in her nose. " _When did you find her_." Her voice is now barely over a rasp, the wet sound of her breathing causing her to cough.

"I-" Kyoko starts, hesitating, "Takeo-sama woke me up - he said he didn't want wake you - and he told me to come here. I'm sorry."

This time Tsukiko's chest begins to heave, the panic finally setting in. _Takeo_ woke Kyoko up, _Takeo_ sent Kyoko here. _Takeo_ is the one who killed Chikako.

It's hard to breath. The air is hot down here, burning her nose and mouth and lungs.

It _hurts_ to _breathe_.

It _hurts_ to _think_.

 _It hurts._

Blood is prominent in the air, the strong, metallic scent clinging to everything; enhancing the scent of death- the corpse in the room. It hurts to breathe in that scent, that one scent that signifies death, that one scent that signifies the end.

Tsukiko hurts, her chest feels like rust again, and she can't believe what she sees. This _has_ to be a _dream_ , this has to be some sort of _nightmare_.

She'll wake up and Chikako will be there, Chikako will be there and treat her like a child, she'll insist on it and pat Tsukiko's head. She'll wake up and Chikako will be alive.

Letting out a choked wail, Tsukiko begins to scream. Scream for the injustice she sees before her eyes, screams for this life she's been given, _screams_ for the rage and stress and the blood she's shed has finally come back to haunt her.

She wants to hit something, she wants to destroy it, to beat it black and blue then to break it's back. She wants to make it burn, she wants to watch as they bleed their wishes out, watch as their bones crack underneath her rage.

 _Feed this carnal desire_ , somethings cackles in the back of her head, voice burning her ears like fire, _ Feed this urge, **feed it.**_

Her screaming stops short.

The earth sways beneath her.

All fades to black.

* * *

Tsukiko's mouth is dry as she wakes up, her head pulsing like a hangover. She doesn't know where she is. She can't feel the hard stone beneath her feet, she can't feel the walls looming over her body.

She feels exposed, she smells the fresh air, she feels the soil underneath her body. Birds chirp, and the sun dapples her face and body. Kyoko's there, curled next to her.

She's outside. She made it out alive and she doesn't know how.

* * *

 _Word Count; 5,330_

 _This turned out a bit better than I thought, but okie dokie._

 _I realized a few day ago that some of you want to see Tsukiko's relationship with Madara and Hashirama, but, for personal reasons, I don't like writing a lot of time skips. You can take a look at the original installment, Of Broken Bones and Wings, and that should show you an idea that may be happening later. It's really shitty, I should warn you, I didn't put so much effort into it like I am doing for this, the writing's atrocious._

 _With that in mind, I'd like to avoid mistakes by creating a reason to why Tsukiko's the way she is, why Tsukiko isn't that much of a talker and why she doesn't like some things. Also, character development in very important while writing a character with issues like Tsukiko, and this story could very well turn to shit if I decide to drop everything and get to the juicy stuff now._

 _Do you want to see one of my original works? Well, you now can! My Wattpad is Blood-of-the-Hunted, and my active story is Sanguine Love; Of the Red Moon and Crimson Dreams, wherein a witch and her lover and grandma-figure may be under attack from the mysterious activity from the werewolves and vampires. There're vampires and werewolves, witches and kelpies, dragons and gryffons, anything and everything I can get my hands on. It started out as a half-hearted idea, so the shit isn't that great of a material. There are currently two chapters available, so there isn't that much material to look at._


	9. Wings of Freedom

Sunlight dapples their bodies, and the scent of mossy trees and water is prominent. Tsukiko's kimono is the way it should be, silver sleeves on her arms and obi tied almost perfectly, and it's wet. Very wet.

She struggles to sit up, her body and mind refusing to comply to her demands, and she feels the bruises on her back, it aches again. Something hot trickles down her arm, and when she takes a glance at it she sees that it's blood.

There is no sun, only her namesake, only the moon. It's only a thin sliver in the sky, but it's enough to illuminate the land below, shining white down on this dark and dank place.

Tsukiko looks down at Kyoko, and it seems she got reckless in a fight, a bruise covers her left eye. The girl's appearance must be as bad as Tsukiko's because their hair is dyed yellow and mud cakes the bottoms of their faces. Whatever happened must have been something bad, because Tsukiko has no recollection of any events leading to this.

She only remembers Chikako's deathly face.

This time she can't keep down the bile, and struggles to move out of the way of Kyoko, puking in the crooks of an old tree. She wipes the excess contents of her stomach off the side of her mouth, glaring at the tree as if it's the reason she vomited.

A sigh escapes from Kyoko's lips, and Tsukiko hears rustling of damp clothes and the squelching of mud. Tsukiko looks back to her friend, and Kyoko gives her a dead look.

"We got out," she mutters, "We got out and left them all behind. The memories, the abuse. All gone."

Tsukiko doesn't know whether to rejoice or cry.

"We left behind Chikako-sensei." Kyoko continues, "We left behind-"

"We left behind a corpse," Tsukiko snaps, her voice raw and guttural. "We left behind the memories of the past and what could have been. We're alive because of it, and we'll stay alive."

It's silent for a moment, and Tsukiko finally musters the strength to stand, her knees bent and shaking at her struggle. Kyoko gives her an odd look, but Tsukiko doesn't care, she needs to see where she is, see what's around her and what she can do to survive. There isn't a lot of shrubbery here, so there are no smaller animals that could possibly be hiding anywhere, but there are tall trees that almost block out the night sky.

The soil underneath their barren feet is wet, moist and possibly filled to the brim with disease, and that means that there should be some sort of delay in their movements. The duo is so used to walking on the stone they have no knowledge on how to walk in anything other. This is something that Tsukiko knows because of her prior knowledge of the world, and if she didn't know this, didn't remember her past, then she is as good as dead.

The forest is silent. Nothing moves other than their breathing and the sways of the trees.

It's something that Tsukiko hoped she would see again someday, but now it only seems to be after her and her friend. It only seems to haunt her every move.

This is a mistake. She should not have left, and even if she did remember she's sure she would've done something different, she shouldn't have made the moves she did.

Tsukiko feels a small hand on her shoulder. It stays there, doesn't move, but she knows that Kyoko means for it to comfort her.

"You overthink everything, and that makes everything seem scarier than what they really are." She states, placing her other hand on the remaining shoulder, keeping her eyes on Tsukiko's face. "You know that this is for the better, but this is something you've never done before; you're scared."

"I know that this is for the better, but I'm not scared. I'm intimidated, I'm confused." Tsukiko responds with a small voice. "This is new, and this is something we've never done before. We might die an untimely death out here, and there's nothing we can do about it."

"There's everything we can do about it, Tsukiko, don't you see that?" Kyoko responds, her voice raising in pitch but remaining the same volume. She leans closer to Tsukiko, her dirty eyebrows rising to her hairline and crusty blood and dirt flakes and chips off, "We are free, we are where Chikako-sensei wanted us, why don't you see that?"

"I don't see that because she warned us about the dangers of being ignorant, no matter how unwillingly, and she told us that there are people out here for our heads for simply existing." Tsukiko answers, her muscles tightening in response to the stress and dread she feels, the urge to run, to do something but sit and wait for death, take over her. "I just don't want to die so young, I want to have more friends, see more than my namesake in the sky, to know what it's like to swim and to fly and to dance knowing I won't be thought of any less, knowing that I won't get dirty looks and frowns."

"You-"

"And I can't do that knowing nothing, knowing that I could die so young."

Silence envelopes them, their eyes stark against the natural white of their skin, stark against the blood and mud and darkness that surrounds them. They both understand what the other is saying, yet they don't know what they mean.

Kyoko is the first to speak.

"I understand that you want to do so much, but you don't have to be so… down about it." She starts, her breath fanning over Tsukiko's face, "We will get to them, I promise. But you have to promise me you'll think happy things. Promise me you'll stay safe."

A pregnant pause, then a sigh. Tsukiko drops her head, and begins to hum a tune. Kyoko knows this, but she doesn't do anything.

"I know I just said something that made you spontaneously create a song." Kyoko starts, her voice soft and hands placed on her friends face. "Will you sing?"

"I'm not the best singer, you know."

"I don't even know what a good singer is, anyways."

* * *

Eventually the duo gather enough energy to move, to explore the new world around them. The moon is still out, still taunting their every move with it's white glow.

They've only made twenty feet before something catches the attention of Kyoko. She stops moving, her grip on Tsukiko's arm tightening. Tsukiko doesn't know what she's looking at, and sure her friend has finally lost it.

"Do you see that?" Kyoko asks, beginning to lean towards whatever she looks at, "I- I think that may be something edible."

"Is it a plant?" Tsukiko responds, knowing that they shouldn't eat anything they don't know.

"Yeah," Her friend whispers.

"Don't eat it. Keep moving."

"Why not, it's something that looks better than the others."

"Poisonous."

"And how do you know."

"I just do. Keep moving. We need to get out of here. We need to find a dryer place."

Kyoko retracts from her daze, eyes becoming half-mast and exhausted. "I'm sorry." She mutters.

Tsukiko is the one to lead this time, making sure her hold on Kyoko's hand is secure and sure. Smells invades her senses, and so does color, and it's very confusing. She smells the rot of the trees, the musk of the water that pools around their feet as they walk, the freshness that comes from the moss that grows by the roots of trees and anything it can grab onto.

As of now she only realises what she put herself into.

She's lived in the cave system for half of her physical life, eaten only grum and rodents, and has had literally no vitamin intake. No wonder why the shikotsumyaku children died of disease and bone tumors, the lack of white blood cells and the introduction of disease is fatal, especially after the fact that their shikotsumyaku only keeps their bodies as healthy with what's taken, not what's being withheld. And the bone tumors, bone cancer in many ways, that's self explanatory.

The usage of how the bones are used greatly depends on the user and how it's used, the less it's used to more likely it is for the user to use it, like Tsukiko's old friend. Tsukiko knew that her now nameless friend was terrified of what she could control, that things shouldn't be her way since she's such a young child.

That nameless friend may have made more sense in many ways, now that she thinks about it.

But that is the past, and this is the present, there is no point in dwelling into something that she can't control. There is no point into dwelling into something that has been coming for some time.

Tsukiko only pushes on, her hand clasped around Kyoko's, and face already wet with precipitation and sweat. It's ungodly warm out here, where the water is thick in the air, where even the moon gives off a certain amount of heat the girls aren't used to. The caves have been always cold, frigid and the color of sulfur and only sending off the wrong waves.

She imagines that they won't last very long. She imagines that their bodies will rot within day and be gone in weeks.

But Tsukiko has made a promise, and she'll keep that promise, regardless of her thoughts, regardless of her foreknowledge.

She's made a promise, and she'll keep it.

* * *

It should be common knowledge that Tsukiko doesn't have many fears. Many of them have not been introduced to her, thus giving off the impression that she has none.

Only that isn't the case as she clings to Kyoko, the other girls face contorting into an equivalent amount of fear. Tsukiko's yukata has now fallen back to her favored place, around her waist, but wet and dripping mud covers her, and so does the open wounds of the protruding bones that may originally have been her ribs.

The yellow bones stick out, jagged and pointed in many ways, almost that of razor wire, and it cages around her body like it cages a wild animal inside a zoo. She lets out a shrill whine, eyes wide and hands clutched to Kyoko's rugged yukata.

The thing that induced such fear, the small( _not small, the size of a fucking adults hand, the size of her damned head, not small_), eight legged _(too many legs, the devil's mascot, his right and left hand with all of those legs_) creature, clutches its body close to the brown-black bark of the poor tree that has to host it. The tree is only four and a half feet from the duo, but if it's enough to scare Tsukiko, then the thing is enough to scare Kyoko twice over.

Tsukiko has no fears, so, in Kyoko's logic, this creature of hell and pain and misery is to be feared and to be avoided at all costs. Kyoko mimics Tsukiko's shrill whine, hoping that it's a noise that the demon hates, that it will soon enough find it's own way back home in this dark and dreary world.

The sun has yet to rise, but the tell tale signs of the moon falling is nigh.

Both girls have activated their bloodline, Kyoko using having used it to make herself a staff, while Tsukiko went full on battle regalia, bones to chamber her nude top, and a rugged form of what must be a staff, something akin to a dagger formed at the tip. Kyoko feels like she's underdressed to this party, but she feels it's a little too late to do anything about it as Tsukiko has already stabbed the brown and hairy creature to its damnation, back to where is belongs with her spear-esque staff.

It doesn't take long before the girls are ready enough to begin their adventure throughout this new world, where all is terrifying and all is dangerous. Only five minutes pass before their gather enough energy and motivation to move again.

Tsukiko knows that her ankles are swelling, the different terrain is far different than the one she grew up with, and she knows that they aren't going to go down for some time. She wonders if Kyoko's ankles are like hers, but the dead foliage and soil that suck up their feet blocks her view.

Things are bright, oddly enough. It may be because of the fact that they lived in a dimmed world hidden away from any sunlight, but the way she can clearly see things in this darkness is almost ridiculous. Although everything is fuzzy, and looking any further than maybe ten to twenty feet is enough to make her mind contract and eyes water.

She knows that she won't be able to handle the sunlight, years of hiding away from it must have made her eyes susceptible to the slightest change in light, possibly blinding her in any form of brightness. Tsukiko isn't stupid, she knows what consequences will emerge after escaping a hell like those caves, she knows what will happen physically, but she is no psychologist.

Kyoko and Tsukiko move on, trying to get further away from where ever they escaped from, keeping their eyes peeled for the next threat or anything potentially edible. They know they will survive this, they've had worse.

* * *

Eventually they get tired, their feet dirty and cold, hands wet and wrinkled, old wounds aching and possibly reopened, and new wounds still bleeding and stinging. They still have their staffs, but Tsukiko has shed her bone rib-cage as soon as she eliminated the threat.

Tsukiko's mind isn't working right, the shit that they've gone through only making her mental wounds seem more the pathetic and pointless. She knows that something's wrong, but she doesn't know what, she doesn't know how to deal with it. It hurts to think.

The duo don't find a suitable place to take a break, they don't find any nooks or crannies like they would in the cave systems, so they make the choice of resting in between a tree and a dying bush. The ground is still wet, but they're so exhausted that they can't find the motivation to care.

Kyoko hasn't spoken a word since that ordeal with the spider, seemingly lost in her thought as if she is contemplating something. Tsukiko knows her friend, and she knows that children of nine years should look this way, she knows that this isn't right through her foggy thoughts.

But she's too tired to ask anything. Maybe if they wake up she'll ask. Maybe if they wake up they'll make more progress.

* * *

Only hours later do they wake up again, face scrunched up as the already risen sun burns into theirs eyes and skin, their arms thrown over eyes as an attempt to block the rays from their face. Kyoko lets out a strangled whine.

"What's going on?" She whimpers, and Tsukiko can feel Kyoko's body rolling closer to her, sharp elbow digging into her chest as her friend rolls on top of her, "What's happening?"

Tsukiko lets out a groan. "The sun's up." She answers, "Don't you remember?"

Through her haze of memories, she can see the rays of sunlight peeking thru the grey clouds. It was never sunny when she was younger, but with the plethora of memories she has she knows almost everything that she needs to survive long enough in this world.

Bird songs erupt from somewhere. Tsukiko is thrown into an overwhelming amount of emotion as she hears the noise again. Trees move, their leaves creating a rhythmic scratching sound that reminds her of waves, and she remembers bright faces, of all colors and joy- smiles, white teeth stark against their natural shades of tan, white sun blocking out the falling sky.

Tsukiko can remember when times were happy. She can remember when she was with her friends.

Kyoko sighs, finally stopping her movements, and has now settled on the other side of Tsukiko. "No."

"How?" Tsukiko asks, trying to further their conversation. If she loses her ability to see after spending only hours of her new life outside, then she's going to do it with Kyoko and in a conversation.

"What do you mean?" Kyoko's voice is strained, and obviously in pain. Tsukiko doesn't know what to do, so she curls up to Kyoko's side, her should blocking the ever incessant sun from her view.

"How do you forget about a giant fireball in the sky?"

"How do you remember such a thing? Weren't you only four when they brought you in?"

"..." That is actually a good point. An excellent one, at that. What's she supposed to say? Oh, yeah, I've actually been awake and in it's presence for nearly three decades, but now that I'm in a seriously malnourished and abused little asian girls body it's the first time I've seen it in almost a decade and I don't remember it being so bright before. Wow.

How stupid can Tsukiko get? First with the rebirth and universe with Chikako, and now she's going to blurt her entire two life's story to a friend she's only known for almost five years and only know because she's the only one with a mental capacity to handle her general nonsense and whimsical ideas of life outside the box and now the knowledge to figure out poison from not and deadly from cuddle.

If she's going to act young and naive, she has to learn how to do it better.

"I don't know." Is her final answer to Kyoko. Their eyes are still closed, so Tsukiko can't gauge what Kyoko's thinking, but by the stilled body movements she's sue that Kyoko is nervous. "The sun doesn't hurt."

"But why is it so bright?"

"I just said it's a giant fireball in the sky, obviously it's going to be bright." Tsukiko snaps, finally getting sick of the red that she sees through her eyelids, and slowly peels her eyes open. She's sure her eyes are going to become blood red in this light, and she's sure she's not doing herself any favor by potentially blinding herself.

The sunlight pierces her eyes, and Tsukiko immediately regrets her decision to do this. Her pupils contract at the sudden flow of light, and tears edge her vision. Letting out a strangled whine, she curls into herself, digging her face into the ground. Tsukiko tries to keep her eyes open, but now with her back blocking the sunlight now, there isn't as much stinging as there used to be.

Hopefully with her half assed formed thought she'll be able to get used to the damned light. Tsukiko knows that it's almost pointless to do this, since she's been lost for so long under rocks and earth where no sunlight ever reaches, but she has to at least try to do something.

* * *

Throughout her entire endeavor with the sun and mud that she lies on, Tsukiko knows that she's made a mistake. She knew that there were children in her groups that were stronger than her, she knew that she once had a sensei who would have killed her if she did something he didn't like, but what she didn't know is that defeating them and living was possibly the worst mistake she would ever make.

She should've just let Yuuguremaru kill her back then, she should've let Chinatsu kill her before she left, she should've stayed still when Bishamon-sensei was after her for not doing what he told. If she had known what it's like to live like this, then she would've just let them kill her.

But then…

But then what?

What would she have missed if she died for the second time? What would have been different if she wasn't around?

Tsukiko doesn't know.

The sun beats at her back, and she can't believe how warm it is. It's like a warm and constant caress, or a pot of boiling water has been spilt on her back; either way, she feels unnecessarily warm, and she wants it to stop.

* * *

It feels like an eternity before the sun starts to fall, and in that eternity Tsukiko gets no sleep, eyes slowly getting used to the rays that burns her white flesh. Kyoko, somehow, manages to sleep for a few hours, but then later wakes up again, saying that she feels bad that Tsukiko can't rest like she can.

When the coolness of the falling sun and rising darkness reaches her back, Tsukiko turns over, blocking the red sun rays with her arm over her face. A sigh passes her lips, and she tosses her hands over her head, cracking a few joints in her back. Kyoko is still beside her, and Tsukiko can feel the girl's soft breathes playing on the squelching mud that now lays dried of their faces and bodies and is quickly layering up.

Tsukiko feels disgusted, a once buried emotion of filth and physical disdain affecting her more than ever. Her body feels greasy, once controlled by the coldness of the hellish caves she used to sleep in, and it's enough for something to get caught in her throat again. She feels nauseous again.

The dying songs of birds slowly fade in and out of her consciousness as she tries to stay awake, but she doesn't know why she's so tired all of a sudden. A sigh escapes her friends mouth, and Kyoko rolls over to face Tsukiko.

"You used to be so… alive when you were sleeping, Tsukiko," She states, her voice rough and raspy, "Why are you so still?"

A silence passes over them. Tsukiko still has her eyes closed, face still half buried in the wet dirt. She doesn't answer quick enough for Kyoko.

"It's about our sensei, isn't it." It isn't a question. It's a statement.

Tsukiko wants to make a continuum of that, she wants to say "And so much more."

She doesn't.

She remains quiet.

"You're not acting right. I want my Tsukiko back, where is she?" Kyoko's voice cracks, and Tsukiko can smell salt. "I don't know where she is, and I want her back."

Somewhere in the back of Tsukiko's mind, she calls Kyoko selfish. Selfish for wanting something as malleable as a person, selfish for wanting something ever changing like the moon.

Something else whispers that the moon is a constant. That the moon will always come back.

Tsukiko doesn't want to stay the same. She doesn't want to come back.

She's then slowly turned on her back, and Kyoko straddles her bare chest. Opening her eyes, she sees the Kyoko holds a bone knife in her hand - an overly sharpened stick, really - and currently has it pointed at Tsukiko's face.

Kyoko's eyes are wet, and a drop splats down on Tsukiko's cheek, falling down to the ground. Tsukiko doesn't know what she did, but she knows that she did something.

"Where the Tsukiko that I knew?" Kyoko whispers, her demand falling almost deaf on her friends ears, "What has happened to the one so collected and calm in rough situations, what has happened to the one so observant and ready in new situations? What has happened to the one that I call friend?"

Silence covers them, and Tsukiko doesn't know what to say. What has happened to the one Kyoko calls friend? What has happened to the one that Kyoko knew so much about?

The one Kyoko knew so much about and calls friend has never existed. The one that Kyoko fantasizes about is nothing short of a dream. Tsukiko is not collected and calm, she's secretive and serious, she's not observant and ready, she's…

She's only Tsukiko, friend of Chikako, friend of someone once called Aino. Friend of the dead.

"I-" Tsukiko mutters, her face contorting and eyes closed, voice as rough as a sand paper, "I have never had a companion as good as you."

"So I'm just a companion?" Kyoko's voice is strained, tight and wavering. Tsukiko hears the splat of a bone dropped in mud, "I'm nothing more than an adventure buddy?"

Tsukiko opens her eyes a little, tears tickle the edges, and looks into bloodshot eyes. Her throat constricts harshly, and she would've choked if she hadn't already knew what to do in a situation like this. Regardless of the blood that stains her tattered clothing, the mud that cakes their faces in layers, and the dead look in the prepubescent eyes, she still knows what to do.

"You are a comrade, a companion, a partner, my only and closest friend." Tsukiko says, "I won't leave you, I won't never do that, and I can promise you that."

"I- I know that." Kyoko starts, her voice nothing but a whisper to Tsukiko's ears, "I've made you promise me so many things, and I know you'll do your best to keep them, but... I now realize that they may be too much for you."

Tsukiko shakes her head, and she can feel her scalp dampen more in the moist soil. "I can keep them, that I can assure you," She starts off, her rough voice a little too loud for her ears. She then notices the position she's in with her friend, and realizes how much she trusts Kyoko, "Get off me."

The weight on her chest is taken off with little hassle, but now there's a brown stain on her white skin where Kyoko sat on her, where the mud is still there on Kyoko's yukata. Tsukiko doesn't mind, but she grimaces a little as her cold hand brush over the spot.

"I'm sorry, Tsukiko," Kyoko says, her back now to Tsukiko as she hunches over her own knees, her voice a rasp. "I- I think I'm just stressed out."

Tsukiko doesn't respond, but she does stand up, swaying a little as she stables her stance. The moon above them is a little fatter than yesterday, Tsukiko notes, but that doesn't really matter now. What matters is that she needs to comfort her one and only friend that still lives.

Squatting next to her friend, she crosses her arms and rests her elbows on her knees, then rests her chin on her arms. This is a comfortable position, and she needs to be comfortable to comfort a friend.

Looking at nothing - just some shrubs and and a fallen log missing a stump and a fuckton of puddles - she places her hand on the back of Kyoko's yukata. Her hands are dry and cracked, and she just knows that her peeled skin on her fingers will catch the loose fabrics of the shitty woolen cloth.

"Sorry," She mutters, not exactly knowing what to do any more. "It's alright; I'll be alright; you'll be alright; we'll be alright; Alright?"

Kyoko mutters something that Tsukiko doesn't catch, but she could understand it being something akin to a positive response to her words. Lost at what to do next, she retracts her hand from Kyoko's back, bringing her hand to her mouth to chew off the dead and dying skin.

She can taste her blood, hear the wind rushing through the branches, and smell the quiet and delicate marshland. There is nothing more elusive than being exhausted and in a little pain at the same time, and Tsukiko's sure that this is what the rest of her life's going to be like.

A sigh escapes her lips, and she can sense Kyoko move beside her.

"What are things like for you?" Kyoko asks after a while.

"What do you mean by that?"

"I mean, what are things like for you?" Kyoko asks again, her voice wavering and Tsukiko can hear Kyoko's breath catches in her throat. "How do you see the world? Your eyes are different than mine, and so is your mind, and I want to know what it's like for you."

"Oh," Tsukiko sighs, now pressing her forehead onto her arms now, face hidden from shoulders, "I guess everything's... blurry? Like, a haze... That doesn't matter, though, what matters is that there are a lot of things out here that we can eat, and we can make sure we don't starve again."

Kyoko nods her head, and then stands up to her full height. Tsukiko follows, and senses that she's upset Kyoko. She didn't want to answer her friends question, and she didn't want to lie, so she made an escape route for herself. Tsukiko doesn't want her friend to see how fucked up she is in the head.

"We need to eat," She tries again, "We never had an opportunity to eat while down in the caves, let's take the chance while we still have it."

"I don't know how," Comes Kyoko's flat reply. "And I don't want to."

"Aren't you hungry?"

"Yes. But I don't want to _hunt_."

"And why not?"

"I just," Kyoko stutters, "I just don't know how. I noticed that anything living seemed to retract from our presence, and that rodents would run away."

Tsukiko didn't notice that, but she's sure she knows why. "We have to be quiet," She starts off, "And collect our chakra, do you remember how to do that?"

Kyoko passively nods her head. Tsukiko smiles.

Taking her friends hand, Tsukiko the makes sure that they both are standing. They face each other, and Tsukiko can feel Kyoko's eyes on her.

"Contract your chakra, push it all into you." Trying to make an example, Tsukiko pulls her chakra into her veins, pushing them into her core and feeling the warmth as they pool into her body. She's known this technique for some time. Takeo made her do this when he taught her how to make bones outside of her body. "You'll feel warmth pool into your veins and stomach."

She can sense her friends chakra reserves slowly push themselves into her body, effectively hiding her presence. Since Kyoko is so close to Tsukiko, she can still feel it buzzing in her ears, but that doesn't matter as now they've both completed the task at hand.

"This should make us seem less threatening," Tsukiko comments, taking a step back from Kyoko. She can feel the sudden lack of chakra in her ears, and feels proud of her friend. "This should make it easier for us to hunt and hide."

* * *

 _Original word count; 5,321_

 _I wrote most of this in 1 in the morning, it wasn't good, lost a good 1k words editing. Half of this is just filler, I guess. Too lazy to put anything good in here. Shit'll happen next chapter._

 _Also, thank you so much for those who have been commenting, they make me really happy and looking forward to writing and posting new chapters. There're like fuel to me, so keep them coming :D_


	10. Wings of Destruction

**Warning; violence, swearing, blood, death, etc.**

 **Warning no.2; I produced half of this in under four hours, all past midnight and with only a diet of tea with a shitton of sugar and one sandwich. It's 5 am for me, and there are grammatical errors.**

* * *

This time they make more progress in how far they get from that damned place. The past two days(nights?) have been spent getting used to the terrain and the new environment, and Tsukiko is sure that they're not going to last long, regardless of Kyoko optimistic views. Is this really the same child she grew up with?

The nights are warm, humid and leaves her hair and body in an undesirable condition. Tsukiko thought that having greasy hair that clung to her hair bad enough, but when the amount of moisture in the air actually begins to weigh her head down, she now realizes that long hair isn't good for this kind of world. She can think of a million reasons why she should cut it, but because she is the sentimental piece of shit she is, she she still keeps it, grooming herself almost daily(nightly?).

Kyoko seems to have taken a liking to producing combs whenever needed. She tosses the old ones out, stating that they'll do nothing but weigh her down, and she needs the practice.

The moon is fat in the sky, and Tsukiko feels that the full moon will be near. While the moon basically means nothing to the two girls, Tsukiko wants her friend to see what the white orb in the sky looks like at its fullest.

"We should probably find a resting place," Kyoko mutters into Tsukiko's ears, her warm breathe playing on Tsukiko's sensitive skin. Tsukiko shudders and leans away. "The moon is setting."

"Yeah," Tsukiko responds, feeling ready to sleep on her feet. "We've made a lot of progress today."

Kyoko nods her head, "It's only been a few days, correct?"

"Two, I believe. And I think the correct term would be 'nights', since the sun has only been up once."

A sigh escapes her friends lips, "I forgot, I'm sorry."

Tsukiko shakes her head, her feet stopping to face Kyoko, "Don't be. It's been almost five years since we've last seen the outside, seen our families."

It's silent again, and they stand there. Just staring at each other. Kyoko's eyes aren't on Tsukiko, but they're focuses on somewhere else that she Tsukiko doesn't bother to look at. If Kyoko wants to be sad and melancholy, then so be it, but Tsukiko isn't going to wait for the sun to burn their eyes out. She also doesn't want to sound like a bitch.

"You can't control who you are," She says, hoping they can find a place to take a nap, because she's ready to kill herself if she doesn't close her eyes soon. "You can't control what you are."

Kyoko sighs. "I- I'm not talking about that. I'm just saying that it isn't fair, that there are different ways to… produce warriors and get the same result."

Tsukiko merely shrugs and begins to move again, her eyes set to find an ideal resting place. "We need to rest." her hands brush against her hips, and hair is draped over shoulders, "It's almost morning."

* * *

To Tsukiko, there has never been a definite line between when she should wake up and when she should sleep. Living in those damned caves didn't help her in any way, either.

While she forgets a lot of her previous life most days, sometimes they - the memories - enjoy watching her get plowed over by a train. It's a tedious task keeping herself washed of any and all emotional attachment from them, but sometimes they hurt and she'll let the cold guilt wash over her body.

She doesn't remember her own name for some reason, but she remembers not liking to sit still, even though she hates the task of exercise. A fleeting friend of hers was into bellydancing, eventually bringing Tsukiko into it, and that managed to pass some time in her still life. Tsukiko remembers that she had one of the strongest hip thrusts in her class, but that was due to the fact that she was a total gym junkie for some months, while other months were spent on her ass reading or pretending to be dead.

It gives her some relief that she remembers this stuff, because she doesn't like the vulnerability of being forgetful.

There's also this fleeting thought of pure adrenaline and anxiety that there is nothing she can do to stop her from forgetting. But… it's the part of life, even if she died young and was reborn into this world, wherein even the slightest hint of aggression can be handled with execution.

Tsukiko always has to remind herself that she can protect herself, that she has the ability to do what she can to keep herself alive and avoid another premature death. Sometimes she's more grateful for the shikotsumyaku and the mere existence of chakra.

The caves below the earth still haunt her every step, and Tsukiko feels underwhelmed about the emotions she feels about it. She thought that she would never look into the dark again, that she'll never want to be in closed quarters ever again, but instead she feels this unstable urge to destroy any evidence that she feels the way she does. It doesn't gain the attention of her companion, but it's enough to add some weight of her shoulders.

* * *

Kyoko kneels behind Tsukiko, a yellow and decorated comb in hand. The comb has wide and thick teeth, and it pulls and tugs at Tsukiko's now glossy white hair.

"Who knew that dirty hair was so difficult to manage," Kyoko says, boney and cold hands brushing after the comb and barely scraping against Tsukiko's neck, "If we knew this beforehand I'm sure we would've taken care of our hair better. You sure you don't want me cutting it?"

"No, thank you," Tsukiko responds, her mind flowing from one place to another as her friend putzes around with her hair. "I'd like to keep my head the way it is right now."

Kyoko lets out a concerned whine, "Then why do you keep on whining and bitching about how often it gets tangled?"

"I hate the existence of anything and everything that gets tangled in my hair." Is Tsukiko's monotonous reply.

Placing a hand on Tsukiko's naked shoulder, Kyoko lets out a snort. "You hate everything, and it doesn't hurt, you know. And I would know this because I, at least, have the _balls_ to cut it."

"You have the _balls_ to do that because you've never really liked the _wonderful_ sensation of long hair like I do."

" _O-Oh_ , so that makes it easier for you to decline my offer, _just_ because you love your _long_ tresses."

"I'll let you cut it when it becomes _too_ long."

"Yeah, and that's when it's already down to your feet."

Tsukiko snorts this time, shrugging off Kyoko's hand off her shoulder, "That's unrealistic. I would cut it when it's down to my knees, _at least_."

Kyoko lets out a series of giggles, her hand that was once on a bare shoulder now covers her face. "I can't believe that we're actually doing this; can you?" Her voice is pleased, and she ends her sentence with a drawn out sigh.

"No," Tsukiko says, and a smile blooms on her face. Kyoko goes back to grooming Tsukiko, producing another comb - by the sounds of Kyoko's sigh and the sound of something tearing - with smaller and more closer teeth than the last one. "But I know it's here, and I like that."

"Who would ever thing that two girls like us used to fight for our lives just to find ourselves a comfortable place to sleep."

Tsukiko sighs, "Shinobi. Remember when Chikako-sensei told us about them?"

"Yeah."

"Do you remember how to hide your chakra?"

"Yes, where are you going with this?"

Trying to get more comfortable in her sitting position, legs crossed and feet almost tucked under her butt, Tsukiko glances back at Kyoko, "She told us that they-"

"Can sense us by our chakra." Kyoko continues, "Yes, I remember that. I remember how to hide myself as well."

"Can you do it right now?"

"I am doing it, you told me to hide it all the time and don't let my emotions bleed into my chakra. Can't you feel it?" Kyoko comments, flaring her chakra to prove a point. Tsukiko curls more into herself, flinching as she feels the warmth of Kyoko's chakra flood over her for a moment.

"Ah, yes," Tsukiko mutters, looking back at Kyoko, her neck stretching over her shoulder as she looks at her friend. "I'm sorry, I guess I've been with you so long that I don't… comprehend you chakra signature."

Kyoko shrugs, and lets her hands fall through Tsukiko's white hair a few more times. "We should probably get back to moving. I don't like that feeling in my legs when I'm not walking, at least."

"I remember when you hated wasting energy when we were younger. What happened there? And we've covered so much land already, can't we have a longer break?"

"We can, I guess," Kyoko's voice is almost as bland as Tsukiko's, "but I don't like this… obsessive feeling in my back. I need to keep moving or I feel like I'll go insane."

Tsukiko lets out a soft laugh, "We all need to let loose. Keeping it in for too long will only make things worse in the future."

Kyoko lets her head drop to the side, tossing the comb to the side and stands, and mutters a ' _worse can happen_ '. She sighs, and lets Tsukiko scramble to stand in front of her. "We're moving as fast as we can, but we don't know anything about anything out here." Kyoko says, her voice too commanding for what Tsukiko knows of her friend.

"We'd know more if we took more breaks." Comes Tsukiko's blatant reply, said under her hand as she suppresses a sneeze.

"We'd be closer to those caves if we took more breaks." Kyoko's voice is raspy. Dirty eyebrows are presses together as green eyes begin to water, and the air catched in her throat. "And I don't want to be there anymore; I don't want to be any closer to that place if I ever have a choice in it."

"Look," Tsukiko starts, voice laced with worry as she takes a wary step back, "I don't know what you expect from this… adventure, but I know that things aren't going to go the way you want."

Kyoko snorts. "And how do you know that?"

"I know because I've been through it multiple times." Saying these words to someone like Kyoko means nothing. She knows that what she released to Chikako - Aino - was pure luck. If she wasn't being milked for information, she would have never blurted any of that shit out. It means nothing. She's not savvy in this kind of environment, she's not a survivalist, she was too sheltered in her previous life. Tsukiko can't even use her knowledge of the fucking Naruto plot because she still doesn't know where or when the hell she is.

"And I suppose you know all of this shit because…?" Kyoko's trying to lead her on, and she knows it. There's nothing Tsukiko can do now.

"I know this _shit_ because I've…" swearing leaves a nasty taste in her mouth that she likes a little too much. Tsukiko knows she has to lie. Kyoko won't trust her no more if her imagination becomes too much to handle. "Because I've seen what it's like for my mother come home when she knows she won't feed us, when I was sent to the caves with Bishamon-sensei, because we both know that we'll never see Chokichi, Chinatsu, Mamoru, Hotaka, Atsuka," She takes a breath, knowing that there's a long list of names to go through, "Iwao, Anzu, Hirohito, Yasuo, Masato, and all of those corpses that we left behind." She knows she listed corpses, but she doesn't want to say Chikako's name in fear of making Kyoko weep.

"But they don't mean anything to you anymore, do they?" Kyoko asks, leaning forward with an accusatory glare, wet eyes making her the more scarier, "Answer me, Tsukiko, because I know that you're not as emotive like normal people, Tsukiko, because even I know that you loved Ch- that you loved her, and I know how much you hurt and how much you forget."

Tsukiko sighs, and looks the other way, taking interest into one of the trees that surrounds them. "I do care, Kyoko, but they're the past, and I can't care about the past." Caring meant memories, and memories meant tears. Tears signified the weak, and she isn't weak.

The sun is high in the sky, the light dappling their sweaty and dirty bodies. Grime covers their bodies and hair, clinging the white and straw-like strands to their clothing and exposed skin. Tsukiko has kept her hair long and her shirt down, but she keeps a handful of strands to cover her chest up, unwilling to use the rolled up wrap that Chikako has given her months ago. Kyoko has cut her hair shorter than Tsukiko's waist length, but it's still long enough for it to cling to the back of her neck and her clothes.

A bird lets out a shrill song from somewhere above them, and Tsukiko feels like this conversation should end now. There's no way that she's going to continue, and she knows it.

" _Why_." Kyoko's voice is strangled, and Tsukiko gains a serious bout of deja vu.

Taking a miniscule step back again, Tsukiko can smell the sap from the tree next to her, her foot getting caught in the roots for a moment. "Because there are so many things to do than mourn for things that can't be given back." Despite her tight control over her voice, Tsukiko knows that her voice breaks far too hard for her liking.

Kyoko takes in a sharp breath, then pivots on her heel to face away from Tsukiko. "Let's get moving. I don't want to be here anymore."

* * *

A few weeks have passed, and the duo are content and always eating when they can. Although Tsukiko doesn't remember how, and Kyoko is very hesitant on releasing the information, they are more content than ever. They have gained more muscle than ever, and the _slightest_ hints of fat have begun to grow on their abdomens and faces.

They've moved pretty far as well, and at first it was underneath the black sky. Eventually, because of their new schedule and eating habits, they begin to explore the daytime. Their eyes burn at first, watering and blinding them at most occasions, but they gain a tolerance to it that makes them happy that they now knew another world.

Morning is here, and Kyoko is sunbathing in the dry clearing they've found. The duo are moving at a pretty fast pace for their likings, but it has been proven to be very fruitful. They are now out of the marshes that the Kaguya's live in. Oddly enough, neither of them have yet to see another Kaguya.

Kyoko lies beside her in the long grass, their bodies leaving an imprint and crushing a handful of stalks, her white hair browned from the long gone mud, her shoulders softly rises and slowly falls. She faces the sky, while Tsukiko lies on her stomach with her yukata pulled up to her neck to prevent the tanning of her back.

The birds are awake, chirping and singing and dancing at the sides of their visions. The sun beats down on them, and the respond to it like content cats.

"I think it's weird how fast time has moved." Kyoko states, her voice almost a whisper. "How long ago was it when we left the caves? When we left our-"

"At least twenty days…" Tsukiko cuts off Kyoko, because she knows that the other girl will only weep more if reminded of whatever has happened when they escaped. "I'm just estimating, so it could be more or less."

"Do you ever keep track of the time?"

"Do you?"

Kyoko sighs, her chest expanding, then deflating almost dramatically, "I know that you're a lot better at it than I am, so I guess I've gone rusty."

Tsukiko barks out a laugh, and the action sends Kyoko reeling onto her feet and giving her longtime friend an odd look.

"What?" Tsukiko coyly asks, feeling unusual for reasons unexplained.

"The fuck was that?" Kyoko asks back, being much more blunter than ever. That phrase she used used to be Bishamon-sensei's favorite while criticizing his students actions.

Snorting, Tsukiko looks the other way, ignoring Kyoko's standing body. Tsukiko faces the sun, so she has to squint. "It's called a laugh; ever heard of it?"

Kyoko sighs again, her head slowly dropping as she returns to her place back on the ground, this time her eyes closed. She doesn't answer Tsukiko, letting the sudden appearance of sass evaporate into thin air.

* * *

As more time passes, they notice the temperature has risen. It's more humid, and Kyoko's having troubles breathing. They have barely eaten since they left the cave less than all those months ago, but even then it's more than what they're used to.

They have slept longer than ever, and they feel more energetic when they wake up. Tsukiko is very enjoyable in this sated state, where she's not thirsty or hungry or tired; she feels happy again. Kyoko's just the same, but today is a little different.

The sun is higher than usual through the barricade of trees, and Kyoko is the one to point it out, trembling hands blocking the rays from her eyes as she looks up at the sky. She knows that Tsukiko doesn't enjoy the sun as much as she does.

A sigh escapes Tsukiko's lips as she stops walking. They've made it out of the marshes, the bogs and are far into the dry forests. They've moved for so long, they've barely placed aside days for them to relax.

"I think that we should rest," Tsukiko complains, tossing her head back, nearing falling backwards as gravity acts on her damp hair. She grimaces and raises a hand to rub at the back of her neck, "I'm getting tired." The dappled sun basically stands on her skin, and she can feel herself tanning as time passes.

"You're always tired," Kyoko responds, her back slowly coming to a stop before she starts to walk again, her energy seemingly still filled to the brim, and Tsukiko acts as if she knows that Kyoko virtually uses her hair to photosynthesize the sunlight to produce more energy. "Just get over it."

Snorting, Tsukiko keeps on moving, trying to detach herself from her physical form. Her calves burn at their new abuse, and her feet are so swollen that she doesn't understand why they haven't burst from the new activity they're forced to do. "Kyoko-chan, my legs hurt. Save me, please," She whines, and then the urge to take back her childish words hit her like a horse, but she continues, "If you can't do that, then end my misery, please."

"No," Kyoko says, her voice strong and commanding. "We've survived worse. We'll get away from that place before you know it."

"We have already left the entire region, and I'm sure we've even crossed countries, there is no way that they'll get to us now."

"There is no way that we can be sure," Kyoko's retort is heavily laced with spite and Tsukiko's words. The paranoia that this girl, while seemingly inane and possibly useless, exhibits, Tsukiko knows that what Kyoko feels is true. There is nothing worse than tasting this freedom and then having it taken away like it means nothing no more. "We keep on moving, and that's what we'll do."

"You're going to work us both to death, we need a break. My feet and ankles are swollen, and so are yours, I'm not blind." Tsukiko snaps, the last strings of her patience slowly disintegrating. At this rate they're going to run themselves into the ground when there is no need to. "You're hurting, I can see that, but the wounds you're putting on yourself can be more permanent and more damaging that the old ones."

Kyoko sighs, and there's nothing more stressing to Tsukiko than the way that Kyoko looks at her.

"We keep on moving."

Tsukiko knows that she has to do everything but open her mouth to please Kyoko. Her legs burn, they feel like soggy noodles, and she's sure that the bags under her eyes have not only darkened, but also have left impressions down her entire face. Walking like this at night was much more pleasurable to Tsukiko but she doesn't like the way the sun beats down on her, like it's trying to bake her alive. She doesn't like this at all.

But still, she places one foot in front of the other, and slowly regains her spot behind Kyoko. There is nothing that she can do, Tsukiko reminds herself, because if Kyoko's dedicated on it, there's no way of stopping the usually delicate girl.

Fuck this shit if she's going to keep going. There are calluses where she once thought impossible, her feet have splintered and bled so many times that Tsukiko is highly surprised that she hasn't died from infection yet, and her back is sick of carrying her over so many different types of terrains that it now clenches and squeezes at the idea of walking when she wakes up. There's no way that Tsukiko will survive another month like this can keep her sanity.

There is no way that Tsukiko would ever go against her friend. Tsukiko is weak. She's weak willed and knows that it will be the end of her.

Foliage crunches and snaps underneath Kyoko's and Tsukiko's feet, and there's the deafening silence that used to plague the caves. Tsukiko's ears twitch, itching for something to listen to other than their own movements. It's dead silent; but Kyoko keeps moving and Tsukiko feels like her friend is on her last strings about stopping and resting.

She hears Kyoko's soft breaths, and then there's life back into the forest. Birds sing their songs, and there's this sense of something dangerous and fatal.

Tsukiko clenches a fist, and then Kyoko stops. Because of the view she has, Tsukiko doesn't see what Kyoko sees until after Tsukiko looks over frozen shoulders. She sees nothing but red and polished pink, it coats the trees and leaves and foliage, and there's absolutely nothing more disgusting than the bodies flayed and ribs presenting themselves to the sky. There are multiple bodies, both lying and standing, both bloodied and stiff.

There is nothing that Tsukiko and Kyoko can do other than stay as still as statues and stop their breathing. Her lungs shrink in her chest as Tsukiko attempts to still her breathing, but the carnage that has occurred in this forest is nothing more than fear-inducing and cold-blooded anxiety.

Something twitches, a dead body, half hidden by a tree, and there's the sickening _crunch_ of bones snapping and _schlick_ and the weapon is torn out of a head. The assailant, an older man with leathery skin and dark hair and eyes, red armour plates cover his shoulders, back, and stomach, grunts something to the men, and Kyoko lets out a whinny of trepidation.

Then all attention is turned towards them, or their general vicinity, and Tsukiko's heart stops in agitation. Pulling her lips back to bare blood-stained teeth, she rears back, her hand coming up to grasp at Kyoko's tattered yukata sleeve.

Kyoko snaps her head back to look at Tsukiko, her eyes wide at what she's done. There is another whine of terror that escapes Kyoko's throat, and then she spins around, breaking her hold of Tsukiko's hold on her sleeve to grasp at her hand at pulling them away from the scene.

All hell breaks loose at that moment, and the men lets out a series of commands and shouts, further intensifying the fear and anxiety in Tsukiko's heart, her face bleeding red as the adrenaline courses through her veins like a wave of burning hot lava. There is a moment when times slips past Tsukiko's grip, and three men have already flanked them and four more stop in front, halting their moments and causing them to stumble to the ground.

There's a flair of sweltering hot chakra, coming from Kyoko, and Tsukiko scrambles closer to her, tearing more fabric off of her hanging yukata, to get hold her terrified friend. She looks up at the standing man, the one who they saw kill standing high above them with his hand resting on his katana at his side. He doesn't look pleased, his face contorting into a glare.

Dusty brown hair hangs into his face, only held back from a old and dirty white strap of fabric tied in front of his face. The men at his side shifts away as if they hold a mental connection with the other, and the ones behind the girls move somewhere, the rattling of their armour and clothing filling in the silence.

"Who are you." The man in front of them states, his voice low and rumbling like falling rocks.

The girls are silent, now huddled into each other's arms. Kyoko's chakra is flairing, and Tsukiko pulls hers out some to sooth her distressed friend.

There's a moment of silence, Tsukiko avoiding his dark eyes at all costs, and Kyoko's short and catched breathes racking through her body, and the man's glare intensifying tenfold. Both of the girls feel it, as if he has complete control and power over his killing intent, and they flinch, curling further into each other.

"I asked you a question," he speaks again, his hand grasping at the bloodied handle of the katana and sharply sliding it out in one swift movement, and the metal reflects the sun's light "and I expect you to answer me."

It's silent, still, and Kyoko is shaking like a leaf. Tsukiko knows that her friend won't answer, so that means she's the only one able to do so. Her face is sweaty and almost as red as the blood spilt today.

Tsukiko can feel the cold fear resting at the base of her neck, causing the hairs there to rise and her spine to tremble violently for a short moment. She opens her mouth, intent on saying something, but only manages a series of incomprehensible squeaks and gibberish. The gibberish that she used is a mixture of all of the languages she knew is her past life, and all coming together to something akin to; ' _don't harm us, please, help us, please, we mean no harm'._

She sharply squeezes her eyes closed and buries her chin into her chest, the cold fear at her neck crawling into her shoulders and running down her arms.

" _We_ \- we are- help- _please_ -" After another bout of incomprehensible words, this time more in their native tongue, Tsukiko lets out a short growl in frustration, and presses Kyoko's larger body closer her her smaller form. The men all look like giants, their bodies hairy and greasy and bloody. "No _harm_." Tsukiko manages to choke out those two words, her eyes wide and tears blurring her vision. "Need- please- no harm, _no harm_."

The man, the boss of this gang, growls something under his breath, and all Tsukiko can hear is the blood pulsing in her ears. He strides up to them, sheathing his katana and reaching forward to twist his hand into Tsukiko's scalp, his grimy fingers digging into greasy roots, and he pulls her up to stand. She only reaches up to his elbow, and she feels really small compared to him.

Here she stands, scrawny and fragile, standing next to a full grown man with fat edging his muscles and standing like an ancient tree. The cold fear that has rooted itself into Tsukiko's neck and spreaded to her arms has now shot down her spine and inside her ribs, and the tears lining her eyes drop down her sweaty face.

"Get up," He barks at Kyoko, sending a look at one of his friends, who mimics his previous movements and grabs at Kyoko's white hair. The man in charge, the one who pulled Tsukiko up by the hair now grasps at the roots again, lifting her body up like nothing. She lets out a squeak and tries to make him let her go by clawing at his wrists. He resists, so she ends up using both hands to minimize the pain by lifting her head closer to his hand. The man brings her closer to him, his grime covered face twisting into something akin to a snarl "tell me, what the fuck did you expect hanging out around places like this?"

Tsukiko inhales sharply, her hands straining to wrap around his large wrists so he doesn't pull off any of her hair from her scalp. She doesn't know what to do, and she wants this to stop. This isn't going the way she wants it to, and this isn't going to end well.

He shakes her, her knees rising to her chest to aid her in her plight, her body rocking in the air and curling into something like a ball in his grasp. She hears Kyoko screech something not far from her, then a thud and a slap proceeding.

"Answer me, child," The man snaps, "This will only end for the worse if you don't answer me. Who the hell are you and why are you here."

She whines, eventually bringing her face close enough to his wrist to snap at it with her teeth. He lets out a shout, and a drawn out curse and tosses her away from him, holding his assaulted wrist. She scowls at him as he tosses her further than she would have liked, landing on her knees, her greasy hair slapping to her bare back in chunks and she can feel the malformation on her scalp as her hair drops at unusual angles.

Tsukiko scrambles backwards to stand back on her feet, leaning heavily on her heels. She brings her hand up to wipe away the tears that had formed there, and she's struck at the side of her head. Letting out a cry of pain, Tsukiko twists and falls face first into a pile of foliage, and a few dead sticks dig into her face. She lets out another cry of pain, and rolls over on her side, pulling and tugging at her face and smearing the blood all over her face.

She accidentally inhales the blood, and lets out a shrill whine in agitation and then a shout as a foot comes down on her stomach, forcing her to throw up the remains of the rodents she has killed and eaten prior. It takes her a while of throwing her hands in the air and kicking before she finds her way back on her feet, the tingly feeling of scrapes and burns on her bony back is more there than her conscious.

One of the men, not the leader, kicks her hips, throwing her on her tail bone and suddenly adrenalized enough to push chakra around her body. Bone spikes split her skin open on her, the bones lining on her back, face and fists, and blood slides out of the fresh wounds.

Someone somewhere lets out a shout of surprise and Tsukiko hears Kyoko let out a shrill scream.

"Get the fuck off me! Get the fuck- get the _fuck_ away from me." Kyoko shouts, and Tsukiko looks over and sees Kyoko's body bloodied and a bloody staff in hand, a man crouching in front of her. Two men take her sides, ready to fight, but Tsukiko is surrounded by three men and now too occupied to watch.

Scowling, Tsukiko raises a hand, her fingers physically twitching in anticipation as she swipes it back down, the anxiety and adrenaline compacting her chakra underneath her skin, her own staff, surprisingly heavier than normal, splitting through her skin and leaving its wound the entire length of her arm. The giant men take a wary step back, but Tsukiko doesn't mind it. She knows how she'll fare against four children her own weight and age, but this is something way out of her league, and Tsukiko knows she won't make it out without losing an appendage or two.

One of the men look at another, and in sync the three men rush towards her, their tanned faces contorting into sneers and scowls that reminds her of Bishamon-sensei. Their weapons are drawn out, the one on her left hold a katana above his head, the middle holding ninja stars - _shuriken_ , her mind supplies - and another holds some sort of knives - _kunai_ , her mind supplies once more - and Tsukiko knows that she's not only unprepared, but heavily unsuited for this.

The one on her left is the first to attack, his heavy body coming down with a strong swipe of his silver katana, and she easily drives his attack to the right while the one with the shuriken throws her weapons at her. Tsukiko swiftly dodges, surprising even herself, and she raises her staff above her head to hit the man with the katana, the bone clanking against flesh, and then swiping it to the side to jab at the man with shuriken.

Tsukiko doesn't see the man with the kunai, but that's easily solved as she looks up to see him coming from the sky, and she sneers at his almost stupidity. Taking a step back and keeping her staff close to her body, Tsukiko bounces her knee as cold fear washes over her body as she sees the two men stirring again. She opts to ignore is, and instead crouches to prepare for blood.

The man doesn't aim for her, no, he doesn't even throw his kunai, instead he lands beside her and leaps towards her shocked form, kunai tight in hand and swiping them. One of them catches her yukata, the ancient fabric following her jagged and speedy movements. The fleeting thought that she might die half naked briefly crosses her mind, but she jabs at the kunai wielder.

She quickly grows tired of this _fight_ , so she dumps her staff at one of the men, and then makes another one, one that has been formed in much more thought. This time she doesn't make her regular staff, this time she makes it heavier, far heavier than the previous one, and a long and straight knife-like thing tips an end. Tsukiko thinks that it can be classified as a naginata, but she's not too sure as she brings the knifed end down on one of the men.

He screams, but then silenced as she jabs him in the throat. She sees a man in her peripheral vision, and quickly swipes the knifed end towards him. He dodges, but Tsukiko redirects her swipe back to him.

He dodges like the last guy did, but she grows too agitated to care anymore. Instead of intercepting into another fight, Tsukiko runs off towards where she last saw Kyoko. She doesn't see her, only a dead and bloody body, but she still continues on in the forest despite the shouts of the nameless men.

"Stop!" One of them shouts from behind, and somehow manages to speed in front of her. His voice is rough, as if he has done a lot of yelling prior to this, but Tsukiko can sense that he would have an otherwise soft voice. "You're- My orders are to kill you, just stop and let me do my duty."

"Eat dick," Tsukiko spits out, bending her knees and resting one of her wrists at her hip, shoulders parallel with the staff and the other hand outstretched further along it, bloodied spear pointed at him, "You're fucking stupid if you think I'd let you kill me like I mean nothing. I ain't gonna not fight, you dimwitted clown of a man. Get the hell outta my way before I cut you down like a damned corn field ready for harvest, you-" She doesn't continue, her heart stutters in her chest and her adrenaline quickly leaving her veins. Instead she releases a short and low growl, and sprints towards him. He doesn't seem to take the hint and stands there.

The man mutters something underneath his breath, but dodges, and quickly re encounters her again, kunais tightly grasped in his hands. He looks apprehensive, but Tsukiko can't find it in her to care. She dodges a few of his jabs and swipes, her already small stomach shrinking to avoid splitting skin and spilling her guts, and Tsukiko brings up her spear, catching his armour and breaking a hinge with a crack. Bringing it back, she jabs at him again, then leaves as fast as she broke his chest plate, leaving behind like her ass is on fire.

A shrill scream that can only belong to Kyoko erupts from somewhere, nearly sending Tsukiko into a heart attack. The sound comes from the left, so that's where she goes, bare feet and shoulders bumping into the trees and opening skin. One of Tsukiko's spikes from her shoulder catches into wood, tossing her into another tree, but the doesn't stop her as she quickly corrects her directions.

Her lungs beg for air, and her mouth is wide open for whatever she can catch. The man from before is in front of her again, frown marring his fairly young features.

"Look, I don't want to do this," He starts off, and Tsukiko is all too willing to spit blood at him, "but I have orders."

"I call bullshit," Tsukiko snaps back at him and takes a step forward, ready to cut his head off, "I do my thing alive, and you do yours alive, got that?"

Making a deal with the devil isn't the best way to start a life, but she doesn't know who is the devil in this situation. He takes a wary step back, and she can't help the small quirk of her lips and letting out a sigh of pleasure.

"I can't do-"

"Then I'll kill you. You've just seen me do it to your friend, so what makes you think that I'll be fucking squeamish about doing it again?"

Disgust crosses his features, "You are crazy," He accuses, and then there's the soft patter as more feet falls lightly on the ground around her, "no wonder why we don't-"

His words are cut short as she releases a hand from her spear and instead directs it to the man, shooting him down like a game of shoot the duck. The man falls, dead as dead can get, a hole in his head and a small ball of bone embedded in a tree not far where Tsukiko can see Kyoko struggling with the leader of this gang. His friends are on her like a reverse game of hot potato, but she takes care of them like she did with the first one.

Tsukiko wonders why she doesn't use this method more often. She wonders why she's still alive, but that's besides the point.

Kyoko releases another scream, but this time it's cut short by an audible _crack_ and _crunch_ of sticks and bones and maybe some splitting fabric and flesh. Tsukiko is faster than she thought she could ever move, ignoring the carnage that she just left behind. She opts to ignore them, her eyes set on the man that held her by the hair.

His face is splattered with blood, basically smeared with it on the left side, and he seems to breathe fire at every moment he can get. His hands go through some odd signals, and Tsukiko knows that she has to get Kyoko out of there. Tsukiko is by Kyoko's side the moment he finishes his hand signs, dropping her naginata along the way, and she has already fallen on top of her friend the moment a blast of burning hot water blasts past her back.

There's some collateral damage, a few trees fall on his onslaught, and Tsukiko can feel half of her back has been caught in the range of fire. Kyoko worms beneath her, pushing Tsukiko off of her, but because of tsukiko's interference that doesn't stop the man, the leader of this group, from kicking Tsukiko away like a sickly dog, and brings down his katana on Kyoko. He stabs her right below the prominent rib cage, and Tsukiko knows that here are some major organs he hit.

Kyoko has already been stabbed and sliced with his kunai, her sleeves are gone and holes litter her arms where he has stabbed her, and she she whimpers more. She tries to roll towards Tsukiko, and hand outstretched towards the younger child, but the man instead takes out his katana with an unsavory jerk of his hand and brings it down on her arm.

This time he leaves it there, and brings a knee to Tsukiko's face as she tries to stand again. The amount of force he used is enough to rattle her brain, and she sees stars for barely a heartbeat before she is stabbed with the same katana that he used on Kyoko.

Tsukiko grunts, and opens her eyes that she didn't know she closed. He stands there, both arms raised with katana in hand. Tsukiko knows that this is the end, but she knows that there's so many other things that she can do for herself and Kyoko to live a decent life.

But time runs slow as the blade comes down on her, and her already accepts her fate. She flares her chakra, enhancing the strength of her bones and lets it all go lose. If he wants a fight, he can get one.

The bones that thunder out of the ground are yellow and brown, and it shakes the land so much that birds screech and fly into the air, dead and falling trees drop to the ground like flies, and one Kaguya Tsukiko cackles like a mad man. The growing bones suck her chakra like a newborn cries in its first breaths of air, but this time it feels good than the first successful attempt.

The nameless man before her doesn't say anything, he only glowers before attempting to finish the job. Tsukiko is out of the way before he can do anything, and he only catches the sleeve of her yukata, which Tsukiko doesn't care of anymore, and lets it tear away, jumping out of the way before he does anything else; anything worse.

Kyoko has only scrambled away from one of the bones, her eyes wide and lip split and bloody. She's gasping for air, but Tsukiko knows that the amazement in her eyes will only last so long before turning into fear.

There are only about a dozen of claw-like appendages that stick from the ground, the man doesn't even near one, in fear of it being a decoy for another attack of some sorts. The shit that these two girls have caused are more than he could ever imagine coming from sickly children.

Tsukiko stops her cackling as soon as she rolls next to Kyoko, who grabs a hold of her hand as soon as it's placed there. The trembling in the older child's hand proves that she fears one of the things that have gone down within the past fifteen seconds.

Kyoko drags Tsukiko up, her entire body shaking like a wet dog, and leads them away from the still growing and still hungry tooth-like bones of horrors. Kyoko tries to lead Tsukiko away from this forest of bone, but they're stopped from a dangerous shout from the leader, and a chorus of yells and hollers from almost a dozen men that surround the children duo and leader.

The man's face is twisted into a snarl and Tsukiko knows that she's the object of his intentions, but, as his eyes lock onto her's, he takes a step to Kyoko, and slices at her chest. The elder child releases a cry of agony before Tsukiko's eyes widen enough to catch the man coming from below, his katana tucked down to his knees and swiping up to stab Kyoko in the stomach.

Kyoko cries out, and Tsukiko isn't there to catch the girl. The man comes after her once he wrenches his katana out of Kyoko, letting her slowly kneel to the ground, keening in pain. Tsukiko has to block a series of swipes and jabs that no one even taught her in the caves, and she knows she's as good as dead, regardless of her previous though.

Tsukiko hears Kyoko shout something from her fetal form, and the small body that lays there is shaking and Tsukiko can hear the sobs of pain. No one dares to move to the fallen girl, nor do they dare aid their leader in his onslaught against the younger one.

After dodging a swipe that leaves an impression in the air, Tsukiko drops and rolls on her shoulder, and procures herself a bastardized form of a knife, and, while keeping her body close to the ground, she tries to get close enough to hit him. She doesn't make it, his bloodied katana has already penetrated the fleshy part of her shoulder and she's too late to dodge anything now.

There's a series of laughs, and Tsukiko doesn't want to know why, but as she looks around the forest that they're currently fighting in, she sees the white hair that clings to the plants, the giant claws the reach from the depths of hell that have imbedded themselves into surrounding trees and other foliage, that Kyoko's once sobbing body now lays still.

A flash of white fear and cold anger washes over her smaller body.

 _When did it become acceptable for a grown ass man to kill a child, when did it become for a grown ass man to fight a child._

 _Never_. Something in the back of her head whispers, and physically she deftly dodges a jab and tries to swipe him with her crude knife. _Never has anything become acceptable. She's dead and you know it._

No. She's not dead, how can she die from such a wound?

 _It has happened before and you know it. The child was exhausted already, lost a lot of blood, you should know, **you** are the one with the **knowledge** , after all._

* * *

When Tsukiko comes to, she wakes up in a mess of blood and bones. Something tells her that whatever happened happened quickly.

She stares up at the sky, her head hurts, she can feel the dry blood resting at her temples. Smaller bones scatter the landscape, she distantly notes. And there's only one other body.

Kyoko is dead. Kyoko is dead and yet Tsukiko doesn't remember anything. Her one and only living friend has now died and she's all alone now.

Tsukiko has to roll onto her side to get back up. Blood coats her entire body, and her head aches. She can still feel the wounds on her head, they are dried, but she knows that she'll be alright.

She reaches where Kyoko lies, the older girl lying in a fetal position on her side, blood coated hands clasped together and eyes tightly shut. Tsukiko doesn't move. She doesn't want to move.

Her only friend has gone now, left her behind. Left her in this world.

* * *

 _Told y'all that shit'll happen._

 ** _Original word count; 8,236_**

 _Like states up in the warnings section above, half of this was made under the heavy influence of the lack of sleep._

 _Also, I now have an **AO3** account, and my user name is **Apocalyptical_Void_and_the_Dead_Woman**.  I have yet to actually post something, but I plan on using that account for oneshots and shit of that sort._


	11. Seeking Nothing but Finding a Friend

_**Warning; mentions of cannibalism, not planned out plot developments & other stuff. Mild swearing.**_

* * *

"How did we leave the caves." Tsukiko cleans her wounds, both the ones she remembers gaining and the ones she doesn't. "Why did we leave the caves."

Simple. Chikako died. Simple. Simple as that.

She sits not far from Kyoko's body, and a once silver fabric is now transformed into a rag to clean wounds. The cloth is soaked red, and it acts as if it can bleed in it's own right. Tsukiko doesn't know why or how, but she's alive even though she has suffered the same wounds - albeit deeper and much, much worse - as Kyoko.

"I know that you know how to run, that you know how to use your birthright to defend yourself." She talks to her dead friend as if she's still alive. Tsukiko's face twists and her body curls in pain as she digs out the remnants of dirt in her wound. It starts in between her breasts, and then ends just above her bellybutton, and there's a slice staring from her right hip to her left side. The wounds are deep and wide, nothing to laugh about. "Why didn't you run, why did you stay when you could have lived."

Tsukiko knows that she's talking to a dead body, and it's getting harder and harder to speak to her friend. Her voice is rough, it's agitated, and she wishes that the man would've killed her. The sun is setting, the orange light bleeding everything red like the blood that stains her body and ground. The bone structors that she made are still there, and Tsukiko can feels them radiating, pulsing and dragging, her chakra like a mark of defeat or victory.

The humid temperature drops steadily, but that doesn't hinder her as she tears away another scrap of her mangled yukata. She doesn't know what she's doing, and she sees through a grey haze that blocks out most of the field that she lies in, but she knows that she needs to stop the bleeding.

She doesn't know why she needs to stop the bleeding when she wants to die alongside her Kyoko, and there's this raging song of fury and fire and fear and anger inside her chest, but then she remembers that Kyoko wanted to get them away from the caves, away from any and all harm. Tsukiko wants to follow through with Kyoko's plan, and she's going to live through it all.

"You could still be alive," Tsukiko says, because what else is she supposed to say? "Maybe if I pestered you enough we wouldn't have encountered them, or if I just did as you said we would have passed right through this place before they did. Maybe if we just ran instead of complying to their demands, you would still be alive."

Tsukiko can smell the sweet stench of rot, and knows that the men didn't gather their dead. She see black birds fly above her head, and circle another spot not far from where she sits. That man who spoke to her lies there, and so do his friends, and she knows that the birds will eat the flesh of the fallen before finding new prey.

"Maybe if we never left the caves we would still be alive." she speaks her mind, remembering the piss-yellow caverns that housed her and other children. She picks at the wound on her face, the one that almost split her ear in half and dragged its way down to her jaw. "I know that we didn't end on good grounds, and I'm-"

Tsukiko doesn't speak after that. Her voice cracks, and tears ruin her vision before they fall and she wipes them away silently.

"I'm so sorry, Kyoko," She mutters before digging her long and chewed on nails into the wound on her face. It bleeds more, and it burns like the welts on her back from that water technique, but she needs to know that she's still alive, that this isn't some nasty dream she'll wake up from.

It's silent again, birds caw and the wind ruffles the leaves. Night comes, the moon almost at its fullest, and Tsukiko hasn't moved, her nails still in her burning flesh. It has gotten colder, and Tsukiko appreciates it. The sun no longer burns into her flesh, and she no longer feels like her insides are about to be lit on fire, and for this she's grateful.

Soon enough a large bird, a raven, she believes, hops from somewhere next to her. The small and sleek creatures twists its head to the side, and Tsukiko stares at it from the side of her eyes, not bothering to move her head. It lets out a low sound, something akin to a child's cry and maybe a man's scream.

Green eyes flicker from bird to tree, and ignores it as it jumps closer to her. It lets out another low noise, this time she notices that it's a little higher than the last and another bird drops to the ground with a muffled _thud_. She eyes it warily, the dried blood that masks her face cracking as her face moves.

Her lips pull into a tight lipped grimace, and eyebrows lower. The new bird hops closer to her until it's almost six feet away, while the other one is so close to her that she can see the ruffled feathers in it's wing. The first bird stands on her right, while Kyoko lays next to her left, and the new bird stands in front of her.

It seems like they're trying to gang up on her, to try and scare her away from the corpse that lays next to her. Tsukiko doesn't move, only allowing her eyes to follow the birds. She doesn't know if there are any behind her, but what harm can birds do to her?

And she's never known scavengers like these to try and scare away humans from potential food. Only larger birds of prey, like vultures or something of that nature, to scare away large animals. Maybe they think she's just some sort of animal that isn't human.

Maybe they're just crazy stupid and think she's dead as well.

This time she does move, shifting her neutral weight to the left, to make it seem like she's ready to fight. The birds don't move, and she can hear the flutter of wings behind her. Internally groaning, the grimace turned into a frown, and her nose crinkles as she tries to remember the behaviour of scavengers.

This doesn't make no sense at all, and she's ready to attempt to kill them and wear their wings as ear muffs and feathers as decorative hair pieces.

The one on her left goes into a stance, twiggy black legs spreading and silky black wings fluttering along its body. Its head is lowered slightly, and it's tail feathers rise up like a peacocks. The one in front of her mimics the other one, and she's going to assume that the one behind is follow suit.

Tsukiko turns her head to look at the one on her left, a glare forming on her face, and an insult ready on her tongue. She pulls her lips back to bare teeth, her eyes trained on the raven.

It stands there, retaining its pose. It lets out another shout-caw-noise, and bounds closer. It's now barely four feet away.

Birds that are not within the vicinity screech their victory of finding dinner, and that gains the attention of the bird in front of her, and it flutters away with a short barking sound. The one on her left lets out a shrill scream, and looks at the exiting bird.

Tsukiko watches with an incomprehensible face, eyes following their moments and deciphering what they are saying.

Eventually she hears another takeoff from behind her, and the original bird glances at it too. This time it lets out a squawk and breaks its stance, snapping its wings open in frustration for a moment.

Unlike its friends, the bird stays, and returns to looking at her in its birdish ways. It takes a few hops backwards until it's about six feet away, and this time Tsukiko has had enough shit to deal with.

A low growls passes from her chest to her throat, and that is enough to scare the avian away.

Time passes again, the way it should have been, and Tsukiko doesn't move a muscle again until the moon falls and the sun rises.

* * *

When Tsukiko gets enough rest and energy that morning, which entails scavenging the bodies for anything edible before finally succumbing to hunger and eating a few legs and arms, she gathers what she can and attempts to destroy her marker. The bones she made back in the caves were made out of inexperience and spite, while this time they were made out of fear and desperation. This makes it all the harder to control.

The bone structures are thick all the way through - no hollowness in sight - and the material is made out of bone - _obviously_ \- and of which is sturdy enough to last till sharks go extinct. Not only that, but they radiate her chakra like a fucking beacon. There is no telling what they can mean to her in the future, but her chest is so fucking _hollow_ \- hollow enough that her body shakes, trying to fill in that Kyoko sized hole in her heart, mind, and body - and her brain is so _clouded_ \- clouded enough that when she realized she was going full on cannibal that she didn't care, that if it tastes like squirrel then it is squirrel - that she can no longer find any part of her to care of what she does.

But some piece of sanity is telling her to do this, and that this can affect her as much as Kyoko dying. While her body shakes like a leaf in autumn, Tsukiko tries to keep her cool the entire day, blood that may be hers and may be others stains her face and chest, and she tries to remember what it was like before being sent off to those caves on her own.

There is a sense of deja vu in the air as Tsukiko digs up the memories.

She remembers Takeo shouting at her to reverse the technique, to take back what is hers, to stop the flow from her system to their system. This would work better if she and the bones were still connected, this would work better if she wasn't alone with a dead friend.

The sun is rising, her bloodied and half naked body sits in front of one of the largest structors, birds sing and leaves dance and the crunches of canines and birds of prey scavenge away at the mangled bodies. There is nothing that she can do without trying something new, and she doesn't know if this will hurt.

While she doesn't know why or how she is alive and knows that she's better off dead, she doesn't want to feel her chakra system in pain. It hurt the first time she used it, it hurt the first time she tried to fulfil Takeo's commands and make those bones,and she knows that it will hurt when the time comes for her to do this.

Tsukiko knows that she can't get rid of her presence here, that these bodies still have a few weeks before they are gone, and decades before there is no trace left behind, but she doesn't want this place to reek of her chakra, to reek of what belongs to her and her only. She knows that the chances of her doing what she wants isn't going to happen anytime soon.

Her chest heaves in air, and she stands again. This is going to work. It has to work.

The bones pulse her chakra, and it scrapes against her core like skin to concrete. Taking a step closer to the claw-like appendage, she places a hand on the sleek bone. The chakra doesn't make anything any better, and it burns her skin like the sun on a sweltering day in the summer.

Morning birds sing their daily songs as she pivots on her heel and retreats with her tail in between her legs.

* * *

Tsukiko stands mere feet away from the still body. Cut white hair is splayed around yellowing skin. It's been almost three days since the incident. Tsukiko is tired, and she doesn't know what to do.

The bones structures haunt her every move, and it seems like there's nothing she can do. Every hour the pulse further and further than their origines. It becomes harder and harder for her to mourn her friends death properly.

Eventually she becomes tired of it. Her body aches, and her joints creak every time she uses them. The black birds visit sometimes, but there never come any closer than they have before. Tsukiko doesn't know what they want. She doesn't know if she wants to.

One of the bodies has already been totally eaten away, both by the birds and other creatures and her. She's been eating a lot more, she takes a handful of meat at least every hour or so.

She feels like she's going to puke it all out, but it makes her feel better about herself and her gone friend as she peels away the red flesh. It doesn't take half a mind to do this, but the blood on her is no longer hers and she doesn't know how to feel about it.

Her shoulders shake and her head twitches whenever she moves, and her hand vibrates and her breath is jagged all the time. Tsukiko vaguely knows that this isn't healthy, that she needs help. She can't get no help in a place like this.

With a broken pace and a whimper every time bare feet step on damp and bloodied soul, she gets closer to the pillars of horrors. She too fucked up to really care about it, about the now burning pain in her abdomen and hands, about the tears that blur her vision, about the creaking in her joints and the stress in her mind.

With a jagged inhale, and an even more broken exhale, she brings a hand up to delicately touch the surface. It burns he fingertips, and she can visibly see the red welts forming there. Her face tightens as she plants her hand firmly there.

That leader down in the caves may be right this one time; _take back what is hers_. Flaring her own chakra, she weaves it into the one that belongs to the claw. It feels like death; it feels like birth. And she can't help it that her lips pull back into a snarl and eyes close in pseudo-fear.

She wants what is hers.

Intertwining her chakra with the exterior, she pulls back in. Her insides feel like jelly, and her skin feels like fire. This doesn't stop her but it does halt the activity for a fraction of a heartbeat, just so she can regain her breath and steady her trembling hands.

Then she pulls tighter, forcing the exterior chakra to connect with the interior. Her insides melt like warm jellO on a hot day, but yet it feels like it's frozen. Like the first time getting these things out, the chakra comes back like a _snap_ , and comes back full force.

Tsukiko stumbles back, and falls down onto her ass with a muted thud and audible shout. She then drops to her back, heaving as much air in as she could get and placing a hand over her bare chest. She can count all of her ribs, and they leave indents above and in between where her breasts should be, and her sternum is only protected by a thin layer of skin.

She realises all of this within a span of two seconds, and knows that this won't be the last time she'll notice how unhealthy she is.

It takes her a full two minutes to gather her bearings and roll to her side. Her insides still feel like freezing liquid, and her skin like the outer layer of a lake in the middle of a cold winter.

Tsukiko loses her fleshy meals on the forest floor.

* * *

She tears away the meat from the thighs first, knowing that they have the most meat. She knows that if she had the right equipment, she could make some nice roast. Her back rests against a tree, and she can see the birds already pecking at Kyoko's corpse.

Tsukiko has long stopped trying to stop them from their pursue.

The bodies have been attracting flies the past hours, and their rotting smells only making things seem more worse than they are. Tsukiko aches to run away.

A bird trills somewhere, and Tsukiko's head begins to pulse. Her wrists hurt, her head hurts, her entire body hurts. Why is she even around here, who knows what kind of things will come by with all of these dead bodies lying around.

Mind mostly set, she stands from her position on the ground.

* * *

A few weeks have passed. It's full on summer, now, the heat is almost unbearable, and the nights are almost as bad as the days. She doesn't know where she is, but she knows she has long left her friend.

The tall trees and shrubbery has now been replaced with tall and green grass and blue skies. Hills are the only thing for miles, and they roll unlike anythings she's ever seen in this life and the last.

It's almost as bad as the forests, but the breeze is something that she has never felt there. The breeze is as soothing as the presence of a companion.

She has no companion.

But Tsukiko still continues of, regardless of her friendless life and lack of human interaction. She has yet to see any settlements of people, and she is as bloodied as the day she left the forests. Tsukiko has yet to find anything better to wear, and she was too lazy to make something useful of the clothing those men wore.

Brown isn't her color, and that's the only thing those men wore. She isn't the best at needle work, either, and that's the only thing she needs to make decent clothes.

Ever since she's entered the green moors she's been wearing those chest wraps Chikako gave her all of those months ago. It's something that keeps her from completely freezing her chest off from the breezes.

Because of the…

Because of the lack of nutrition and denial of food from months prior, there are wide V shapes above her breasts. While her stomach is full of red flesh, both human and animal, it has yet to settle into fat.

While her wraps are meant for an adult they almost cover her entire torso, she uses this to her advantage to cover up her new wounds. This still doesn't stop her hands from itching them.

Tsukiko heaves a sigh, and looks at the blue sky. The sun is behind her, and she's far from ready at even glancing at it.

There's more green hills in front of her, and she knows that this is what a typical child would be drawing in school. Green, green hills with blue, blue skies with one fat yellow, yellow sun hanging at the side of the hastily made crayon-colored page.

She shakes away the thoughts. "No use for dead memories. No use, absolutely no use, none at all."

While she isn't one to talk to herself so… insanely, she knows that in some cases it can help clean the mind. She also knows that she's set in a feudal Japan, and they don't take things out of the norm lightly.

Lifting a pale and spider-like fingers, she rakes them through her scalp and slowly allows her head to drop. Her hair is greasy, and she itches to find a source of water - one of which is clean - and dunking her head in.

Regardless, she still travels on. She doesn't stop, not even when the sun sets and the moon rises.

* * *

A village comes into view a few days later. The sun is rising, and she's only working on five hours of sleep and the hamstrings of a hare. The village is small, only sticks as a fence and gate, and people bustling around. Her body has been acting up the past few days, dizzyspells a common occurrence, and nothing seems to settle right in her stomach the way she prefers it to.

She can feel a dizzyspell coming on, now, and, if she's to be honest, she feels like she's going to pass out. Her arm, the one she used to produce the staffs in that damned fight, is swollen and pink and in very much pain.

An urge pulls her closer to the confines of the village. It's almost primal, the heart aching urge to connect with one of her kind, to engage a conversation with someone that isn't dead or an inanimate object.

The people seem to be setting up a market of some sorts, fruits and vegetables of all sorts, along with materials like fabrics of all colors and tools of different types. Her feet pull her closer to them, though, ignoring the odd and foreign texture of the battered down soil beneath her mud-crusted feet, and the tempting smells of the sweet fruits only making her move faster.

Tsukiko knows now that she should have taken a break hours ago, because now she can feel her body break under her skin.

She drops like the dead.

* * *

There's a warm and damp cloth on her forehead, and her clothes are gone, the wraps Chikako gave her are gone, and she is as clean as the day after she was born. There is no grime behind her ears, there is no dirt and sand in between her toes, and her body feels like it has been thoroughly washed. Her wounds are still there, a dull ache, and her injured arm rests in a probably wooden bowl, poultice smeared and another warm cloth resting softly above the mush. The side of her face is also bandaged up, covering her entire ear and cheek.

The room smells like plants of all sorts, she can hear the bubbling noises as water is being heated, but her eyes don't seem to want to open. There's nothing blocking her vision or her face; it's just that her eyes seem reluctant to do anything.

Someone steps into the vicinity, their steps dragging and fabric following. The person, a supposed elderly person, hums a tun underneath their breath, their voice wavering and watery.

The elderly person wanders around for a bit, picking things up and holding them for a moment. They stand somewhere close to Tsukiko's head, and Tsukiko wiggles her fingers to see how much manoeuvrability she has to her hands.

The person mutters something underneath their breath, and then lets loose a content sigh. Something clanks, and it sounds like porcelain to Tsukiko.

"I know you're awake, child," the now identified elderly woman finally says, "you have acquired quite the wounds, haven't you."

Tsukiko doesn't speak, instead she attempts opening her eyes again. It prove much more fruitful than the last time, and her sight is blurred and stained tawny. She then assumes that what she sees is the ceiling of the small room she's confined to. She lies on a futon.

"What happened to you for you to get those kind of wounds?" The elderly lady asks, creeping closer to Tsukiko. Her dark eyes flicker over the child's body, and she hums something, "They look like something I've seen before, but I can't put my finger on it. Will you speak to me?"

Tsukiko eyes the woman warily, and she knows that her body isn't ready for another fight, regardless if this woman if a civilian or not. She knows that this is the village that she spied on earlier - or at least close to it - but she doesn't know exactly what lies outside.

"Answer me, child," The older lady spits out, her voice like a drowning cat, high and unpleasant, "Who knows where you've been, and I've never let a patient die on me from something so pathetic. Child, who did this to you?"

Tsukiko stays still, her eyes averted to look to the side at the woman. She sighs with a grimace, "I don't know."

"Seriously, child, need you be so stubborn?" The elderly woman grunts, now kneeling beside Tsukiko, cold, dark, and weathered hands delicately taking off the white gauze that rests on Tsukiko's swollen arm. "I've never meet someone so young so disgraceful. Have your parents taught you nothing?"

"My parents abandoned me." Tsukiko blurts out, and then feeling ashamed for speaking so loudly. In a lower voice, almost a whisper, she continues; "No one taught me nothing other than how to survive."

The elderly lady just stares with calculating eyes. Whoever she is, Tsukiko is sure that she is one smart lady. "I would have pegged you for being royalty, with the fair skin and white hair and the clan markings on your face. The only thing stopping me from such an assumption would be the scars that litter your body." She says, voice grating against Tsukiko's ears, a voice like it never been heard from the young girl. "From what I could tell they are a common occurrence, as well. Most of them are old and already healed, but the worst of them are pretty new, the infected ones dating back almost a week, and the other most notable ones dating back a few months. Tell me, how old are you?"

Tsukiko looks away at the other wall, where there lays an open window. This place is entirely Japanese and there are rice-paper doors and walls and woven floor boards, so she isn't too stunned to see that there isn't a glass window but a ledge decorated with various plants, yellow light streaming through.

She hesitates, confused at what to say next. What is she going to say? Oh, yeah, I don't know, I've lost track after so many years living along in the middle of nowhere - literally, as I lived in the caves somewhere wet and damp and ugly as all hell - and there was almost no time left. She doesn't know what to say, and what can she say.

By all evidence, she knows that she's younger than fifteen, because isn't that when all girls have started their menstruation? And she knows that she's not far from it, so that has to be ten. Tsukiko has never been the best at knowing time and how much has passed, and it only got worse the longer she stayed down in those caves.

"I-" She starts, but is thwarted by the pounding at the shogi door a few rooms over.

"Maaya-san! Maaya-san!" someone shouts from the outside, desperation in their voice. "Hatsumomo broke her leg, we need your help, Maaya-san!"

Maaya scoffs, turning away to gracefully stand back up in her yukata, "I will come back, and I want your age by then, child." She walks away, but that doesn't stop the elderly lady from glancing back to give a glare.

Tsukiko hastily nods, her lips tightening into a straight line.

* * *

The woman, Maaya, doesn't return until almost when the sun is setting. Tsukiko can see this from her place on the futon, and she's sure she took a nap because Tsukiko could swear the sun was up higher.

When Maaya does return, though, she brings in another girl. Younger, older than Tsukiko by a few years but not as old a Chikako or any of her previous senseis, and face painted white with a theme of red. She has a kimono to match, and it reminds Tsukiko of a setting sun with it's orange and red theme.

The older girl, who Tsukiko assumes to be Hatsumomo, wears a hastily-made brace, that's only visible through the impressions it leaves on the kimono. Two men carry her in, one by her feet and another with his arms hooked underneath hers. She's awake, but looks like she was drugged earlier.

"Place her next to the other one," Maayu says, pointing a skeleton-esque finger to where another futon lies at Tsukiko's feet, "She doesn't bite, I swear." Whether the comment was made for Hatsumomo and her carriers or Tsukiko, she doesn't know.

Hatsumomo murmurs something, her voice a lot more pleasing to the ear than what Tsukiko has ever heard after escaping, and her head lolls to the other side, face now turned to the other side. The men wobble over to where Maaya instructed them to, and carefully placed the girl down. They look at Maaya for more instruction, but she waves them off.

They leave without a sound.

"I honestly expected you to leave, child," Maaya says slowly, heavy eyebrows hiding her eyes from Tsukiko, "I wonder why."

It's quiet, and the only sounds there are is that of Hatsumomo's breathing and Tsukiko's heartbeat in her throat. Why didn't she think of that...

"Now that I suppose you want to get full healthcare, for sticking around and all, why don't you tell me your age?" The elderly woman tries, tilting her head, "I know you're too young to be Hatsumomo's age, but too old to be eight or nine because you've just started puberty."

Tsukiko raises her chin, not too keen on fully answering.

"Maybe she's too shy..." A soft voice pitches in, coming from Hatsumomo, "Maybe she doesn't even know."

Tsukiko snorts then, "I was never told to keep count because it wouldn't matter when I'm dead," she bluntly states, her voice chopped and stale from the lack of use, "I was never told to count because no one would care."

 _Hell, I'm not even sure if I even know how to count..._

Maaya hums, and then moves to a wall where a short kotatsu table is pushed against to place something from a pocket onto. "Then I suppose that you don't even know yourself."

"I kept track at first when I knew how old I was," Tsukiko blurts out again, feeling the urge to defend herself, "But thing went down where I had better things to do than to keep track of time when my life was at stake."

"Your words make no sense, child," Maaya says, her back facing Tsukiko. She takes a sip of something and the cup clatters back down on the table, "Then, what's your name?"

"Tsukiko," She answers. She tries to get up, propping her elbows up to sit up, but there's a sharp and quick pain in her abdomen, causing her to let out an almost silent gasp and to lay back down on her back. "And I don't understand why you would need my age."

"Oh, child," Maaya says, her voice almost like a song, "I just wanted to know how old you are. We never get anyone so young here, and it's very unusual for an experienced shinobi to not notice your presence, either."

Tsukiko stares at the ceiling, having inhaled a lip to gnaw at it. "What are shinobi, miss?"

Maaya gives an ugly snort, "Shinobi are people who use their chakra for both good and bad, girl, you should never come across one while you're alive, because often times it's their duty to protect or kill you."

"What if..." Tsukiko starts, but then drags off, unsure what to say next, "What if they come to you?"

"Then be a baby deer and stay still, don't breath or don't even blink. They are sensitive people, and the only way to protect yourself is to keep quiet and don't make any messes with people on top." The elderly woman, now standing up and facing Tsukiko, her face is sagging and leathery, grey hairs are loose from the bun that totters on top of her head, and yellowing teeth sharp behind thin lips, "It's really a shame to be born into their clans with their high expectations."

Tsukiko would have asked more questions, but none seem to come to mind that are coherent enough for even she to understand. She keeps her mouth shut and watches as Maaya walks over to Hatsumomo, her face almost emotionless.

"I would advise you to stay still, Tsukiko-chan, those wounds of yours will only get worse if you keep on moving." the old lady grunts, and she knees beside Hatsumomo."It's a shame that someone with a face and features like yours would have to deal with the wilderness like an animal. I wonder what clan of shinobi fought you, because I know of a blacksmith who makes katanas like the ones that assaulted you."

Hatsumomo mutters something again, and Maaya pulls a box from somewhere. Tsukiko doesn't know where or how Maaya got it, but it's there and it's real.

"This is going to hurt." Maaya says to Hatsumomo, who sounds as if she's high off her ass, "I'm glad that I won't have to reset it." She pulls some things out of the box, which is a fairly large roll of gauze and little brass container. "I'm surprised that you broke your leg the way you did, you are usually an agile creature, Hatsumomo-chan."

"Yes..." Hatsumomo sighs, and then tries to roll over, but is thwarted by Maaya slapping the younger womans hip. Hatsumomo lets out a low growl of sorts.

"Now, don't be moving around on me," The elderly woman sighs, her voice almost covering the rising commotion outside.

Tsukiko is at a disadvantage, Hatsumomo's futon rests at Tsukiko's futons feet, and all Tsukiko can see is is a mop of dark hair. Hatsumomo groans in pain as Maaya does whatever she does.

The commotion outside only escalates after that, though, and a man shouts incoherent things to something. They don't seem to be shinobi, because Tsukiko can hear their feet scuffling and pounding on the ground.

Maaya grunts as she stands, wiping her hands on her sides as she walks around the room aimlessly, mutter under her breath as she glances wearily between Tsukiko, Hatsumomo, and the door. She heaves a large sigh, her tanned face expressful and almost woeful.

"I'll have to disrupt that fight before I have to put up more futons in here." She says, waddling like a duck over to her kotatsu, slowly kneeling down to grab something from a stack of brightly colored scrolls, "That reminds me, I'll have to double check my funds; I don't need to become bankrupt because of some strange child."

She turns around in her seat to give a glance - a glare, really - to Tsukiko, "And _that_ reminds me that you'll have to pay off that debt you collected, child," Maaya rasps out, "Once you're all healed up I'll have to set you to work for a month or so. At this point I don't care about life before this, you owe me, child."

Tsukiko nods her head, her eyes narrowing. "What about Hatsumomo?"

Maaya snorts, "She's my great-granddaughter, she pays off her debt by suggesting people here to me. Her business has given me a lot more customers, I'll have you know."

Tsukiko hums a response, "What business does she do?"

"A geisha," Maaya answers, "Apparently there was a bad crowd today and one of them got rough with her."

"I- I do missionary work, I guess you can call it," Tsukiko says, not exactly sure what to call it. "Does he have a... bounty on his head?"

Maaya grunts under her breath again, and looks away for a moment and grabs something from her desk. "I guess I'll have to look into that. And I hope that this will go to the debt you owe me, because it will not go away because you get rid of a hostile costumer."

"Understood," Tsukiko mutters lowly, her "When will I be able to stand again?"

"Eh, I give it two - maybe three - days." Maaya answers shortly.

"When will I get up, too~?" Hatsumomo whines, rolling around on her futon, her thin blanket rustling with her. "I don'' wanna be left here alone while my new friend gets to explore!"

Tsukiko lifts her head to stare at the top of Hatsumomo's, a passive comeback ready on her tongue before she spots pupilless green eyes staring back at her with a coy smile on her face.

"What?" She asks, her voice almost youthful to Tsukiko's ears, "You seemed so _caring_ , you know, so why can't I call you a friend?"

"Because-"

"Because you have just met me?" Hatsumomo says with the tilt of her head, "Or is it because you don't know why I'm advancing on you the way I am."

"I-"

"'I guess,' I think is what you're going to say, am I right?"

"..." It silent for a moment as Tsukiko waits for Hatsumomo to speak again. "Yes," She says finally, resting her head back down.

Hatsumomo lets out a small series of giggles as she, too, rests back down on her back, the rustling of her blanket. The older child lets out a content sigh as she settles down.

* * *

"Hey, Tsukiko-san, wake up," Hatsumomo says as she prods at Tsukiko's feet the moment the sun peeks over the edge of the windowsill, "Wake up, Tsukiko-san."

"I thought we are friends, Hatsumomo-chan," Tsukiko says as she retracts her foot away from the older girl, and rising her head to peer at the geisha over her white draped body, her facial bandage crinkling, "Please, call me Tsukiko."

"Alright, Tsukiko-chan, how are you feeling today?" She asks this with her head propped up by her hand, a gummy smile set on her face, pale green eyes wide, "I was thinking that if your legs still work we can steal one of obaa-chan's canes and we can take a walk around the village. You're new, right, this'll be a new experience for you, I bet. I can make it fun for you, I know."

Tsukiko nods her head curtly, and the lets it rest again on the futon. "I guess. It depends, though. I don't know the exact condition of my body yet, so I don't want to fuck anything worse."

"Nice wording," Hatsumomo snorts, green eyes peering out the window, "I think you'll fit in nicely with my family, you know. Although, you're literally too white. Imagine, a white haired and white faced girl next to dark skinned and dark haired boys, girls, men, and women. The only thing connecting us would be the green eyes.

And the _eyes_ , Tsukiko-chan, where did you get them from? I'm loving the green irises and yellow pupil thing going on."

Slightly taken aback, Tsukiko looks back at Hatsumomo again, a quizzical expression clear on her face. Hatsumomo lets out a laugh, her head dropping off her propped hand to rest next to her elbow close to the ground, and she looks at Tsukiko underneath dark eyelashes.

"Yeah, green irises, yellow pupils, framed by white lashes tied together with a rounded face, strong jawline and pale skin," She says, continuing to describe Tsukiko's features, something that not even Tsukiko bothered to do, "It's like you've never seen a lick of sun since the day you were born."

"It kind of runs in the family, I believe," Tsukiko finally says, "Although both of my parents had black hair, the... white features promise a strength that even a Goddess feared."

Hatsumomo croons in excitement, a laugh bubbling in her throat, "Is it a story? Will you tell me it?"

Tsukiko hums in approval, her eyes almost glued to a spot on the ceiling. "I don't know how it starts, but it's a long story, so we might not even take that walk you were talking about."

Hatsumomo laughs again, "We can take a walk tomorrow, there's nothing more important to me than a story by a new friend, if you don't mind telling, that is."

"I don't mind," Tsukiko admonitions quickly, "I've never told this story to anyone that didn't know pieces before, though, so I guess that I'm going to be rusting, assuming that I'm even good to begin with."

* * *

 ** _Word count; 6,943_**

 _Apparently I'm going to Germanfest during the weekend with some of my family. I'm not entirely fond of all of them, my mother was the one who told me wednesday with little of my input, and I know that my overbearing cousins will be there as well, so I don't know how much I'll be able to write. There's no access to internet there, so that's why I'm posting this early._

 _I'll try to write more than 6k next week - on time - but I don't know how that's going to go down. I've been trying to get Tsukiko to react more harshly to Kyoko's death, but there's nothing that I can do that makes it seem like **Tsukiko**._

 _Funfact: Tsukiko was supposed to meet a canon character in this chapter, but one thing lead to another and here we are._

 _Funfact #2: Hatsumomo actually comes from a book(novella?) called 'Memoirs of a Geisha'. I've only read part of the book, but I've watched the movie a few times. Hatsumomo is one of the main antagonists, and the main character is named Sayuri(her given name is Chiyo). I totally suggest it to anyone willing to read._


	12. Not a Chapter, but an Apology

Hey there, followers of this story, I'm sorry that's it's been such a long time since any of you've heard from me. I know that's it's been a few months since I've last updated, but the school had kicked in at that time and I couldn't find the motivation to write fanfiction here. The time that I had been gone was nothing more than me spending time on original works, improving my art skills, and an attempt to try and do the unnecessary homework.

This story will remain up, and I will keep on posting, although I might only get a chapter out every month or so. I sincerely enjoy writing Tsukiko, and I enjoy this world that I've made for her and all of the splendid characters. While I don't know when the next chapter is out, all I know is that I plan on having much more content than the previous chapters. I'm not too sure on the word count, but I am going to add a few time skips to speed the story up to where I had envisioned it when it first came out.

I hope that you have a marvelous life and have thus far enjoyed this story.


	13. Seeking Courage but Finding Creation

Her storytelling doesn't take long, a proclaimed head injury saving Tsukiko from the obnoxiously long and patched story that she (mostly) doesn't know. A few simple sentences to keep Hatsumomo content is what she did, followed by a short description of the things her 'Goddess' can do. Tsukiko is almost bewildered by the softness in Hatsumomo, the way that she holds herself, the way her eyes don't flinch or dart over to an unknown noise, or the way her form is relaxed and slouched.

It would be something that Chikako wouldn't take- you'd had to be ready at the drop of a feather to fight, to be prepared to use their bloodlines for better or worse. To be ready to fight the unexpected, the unholy, and the things crazier than she. It's a wild statement, Tsukiko knows, but she still believes what her sensei says. She still believes that those people are after her now that she has settled down.

Regardless of that, Tsukiko knows that this _contentment_ will end eventually. She knows that this homely feeling she had will end. She knows that everything will end eventually.

"That seems so wild, although I do feel some sort of… connection to it?" Hatsumomo mutters, face washed from all makeup, thin lips spreading into a wide smile. "I guess I can understand why the Goddess would want to have her power back; she didn't intend for her children to have it, nor did she intend for them to ruin her paradise."

"It almost seems like you're sympathizing with my Goddess," Tsukiko says. Things of the unnatural are supposed to be sympathized with, but not hers. Hers is the bane of all's existence.

"Isn't that what Goddesses are supposed to have, though?" Hatsumomo says, green eyes darting up to Tsukiko's and a small frown taking place. "That is why they are given the title God and Goddess, or am I wrong with this particular Goddess?"

"Point proven," Tsukiko says, her body still on the ground, although she is now on her side, arm propped to allow her some comfort while looking around the dainty room. "And point proven once again. Kaguya-Hime is death incarnate, she is a nightmare to be around and demands everything on your person. She is not a nice person."

"That seems…" Hatsumomo doesn't manage to say the rest of her as her grandmother, Maaya, who snarls at the two girls.

"Get up, we're having a family meeting."

* * *

Tsukiko hisses at the body that is pushed against her, and she can feel the involuntary rush of warm chakra into her veins and into her bones. Eyes as green as the summer meadow of the world past glares pass the thick dark hair, and what catches her attention is the child clinging to his calf. Tanned skin and even greener eyes greet her, the boy of what looks to be three or four years old only turns an odd shade of red and looks away.

"Watch it, ikiryō," the man says, bringing a hand to push back his sloppily cut bangs. "What brought the dead here? Did one of the relatives decide to make a deal with the deceased?"

Eyeing the man and the child at his leg, Tsukiko draws her lips back into a grimace. "I'm here with a friend, actually. It would help me greatly if you would point me in her direction...?"

"And who would this... friend be of yours, ikiryō?" He tilts his head, and that somehow ages him by four or five years, the bags underneath his eyes becoming more prominent and wrinkles forming just above his brow.

"Hatsumomo. She's here with her grandmother, I believe, Maaya." The simple grey party yukata she wears is different to her skin, the fabric soft against her scarred body. It unnerves her, and she can't stop her throat from collapsing or the air from her lungs escaping. She bobs her knee uncontrollably, and she thinks that she must look so... weird, compared to all of these composed and relaxed people.

Even her attire is different, simple and light colored, matching her white hair and pale complexion, but surrounded by all of these tanned and dark-haired and eyed people, who know each other. She sticks out like a sore thumb-she doesn't like this though.

"Ah yes," the man says, taking Tsukiko away from her thoughts, "The... dancer, the one who recently broke her leg, I believe? Or the other one who does the flute? Or the one who has three children? They could all be one woman if I were to be honest-"

"Silver woman-girl," the child at his legs says suddenly, voice high and eyes on Tsukiko. He is no longer at the man's legs, but now standing between the two. His hands are high, making the grabbing motion Tsukiko knows well. He wants her to pick him up. "Pick me up? I want up."

Tsukiko eyes the man from underneath white eyelashes, eyebrows raised. He nods, and waves his hand towards the boy. Not wanting to pick him up, she just kneels to his level, which is easy as he is a tall boy for his age. His hands follow her descent from the heights, but she eyes them wearily.

"Hello there," Tsukiko starts off, "I am-I am Tsukiko. Who are you?"

"I'm Kakuzu," he says, and Tsukiko believes she knows that name. Maybe she does, but she'll have to think about that another time. "I like your eyes. They're like mine." He widens his eyes for her to see, and she only gives him an obviously forced smile. He doesn't know, she thinks, as she spots Hatsumomo's orange and red kimono behind Kakuzu's guardian.

"As much as I enjoy looking at your eyes, I have to go now." Kakuzu's face falls, and tears prick the sides of his eyes. "But I may be back, don't worry, kid."

She disregards the man, and brushes past him without a glance. Tsukiko can tell he looks at her, the entire time that she strides towards her-dare she say-friend, but she doesn't find it in herself to care. Worse things have happened to her.

"-but when I was ready to leave the stage, the floor broke underneath me! So I had to spend quite some time with my great-grandmother who also happened to have another girl there-about my age but in a worse situation-and she's such a fun person to be around. Makes these weird comments on life and work and aspires to be a mercenary or something when she's better, but who am I to judge?" Tsukiko hears Hatsumomo say, chatting away to what looks like an older relative of hers. Grey and white streak their hair, and when she sees their faces, she can tell that they've seen plenty of things.

"That's so nice, Momo-chan, where is she, I'd like to meet her, she seems like a wonderful girl to be around," the eldest looking one says, her hair more grey than black.

Hatsumomo swerves her head around a few times, trying to spot the one sore thumb in the group, and lets out a laugh when she sees how close Tsukiko is to her. "She's right here, Aina-chan. I told you she would be easy to spot here."

"Hatsumomo-chan," Tsukiko greets with the nod of her head, before coming to address the older women, "I am Tsukiko, as you may have just heard from Hatsumomo-chan. It's a pleasure to meet you." She finishes with a curt bow, and the elderly women give each other a weird glance before giggling.

"Oh, sweetheart, so polite!- So beautiful, too, what do those markings mean?- How did you do them? How are they still so fresh when you've been here so long?" The women say, almost at the same time. Tsukiko's eyes twitch(she's also worried they haven't commented on the scar on her face, which is… odd), and she shoots a glance at a grinning Hatsumomo, before trying to formulate how to speak to these women.

"I- uh- I was born with them? I can't get rid of them, nor can they be washed away. It's something that is in my family, although being born with the way I was is getting harder and harder to come by." She manages to say, only stuttering at the beginning.

"So it's a heritable trait?" The one that isn't Aina says, her hair mostly black, although she has more white than grey stripes in her hair. Her skin also looks more sun-worn than Aina, but that may be the lighting. "I believe I have a grandson in need of a wife, the youngest one from my eldest brood, Daido. He'd be a match for you too, always wanted to be a samurai, or even a ninja when he was still a babe."

Tsukiko twists her face to one of minor disgust or contempt, but quickly smothers it out with a small and pleasant smile. "I have no desire to marry, nor carry children. Especially at this time as I have a more favorable and honorable task at hand."

"And what may that be?" Aina inquiries quickly, eyes brightening, looking for any flaws in Tsukiko's words or face or body. "You are a perfect candidate, you are young and at that age."

With a hum, Tsukiko nods her head. "I'm only a little younger than Hatsumomo, I'm not even close to being at that age? And it's not my progeny that provides me my honor. It's the revenge to the people that brought me here the first place. They nearly killed me, you see, and I don't take that lightly. Maybe once I obtain my revenge, I will take up your offer, but as I have no authority of my blood here to officiate the marriage you can't, to place it lightly, make me. Even if I have scars, that doesn't mean I'm a bad fighter."

It's silent for a moment between them, a suffocating one at that. Tsukiko can feel their eyes on her, judging her for the words. She doesn't know if she phrased something wrong, or maybe said something she shouldn't have, but all she knows is that the air is becoming suffocating.

"Well," Hatsumomo jumps in, as if detecting the plight of Tsukiko, "that was- that was a lot." Grabbing her wrist, Hatsumomo quickly bades the women a farewell, and drags Tsukiko off to a secluded corner, pushing past people breaking many conversations in their wake.

"What the hell was that about?" Hatsumomo scolds, a snarl on her dark face, "Why didn't you tell me this? I thought we were a friend!"

Slightly off taken by the accusations, Tsukiko takes a moment to breathe and calm herself. Sweat grows on her forehead and chin, and she knows she's in trouble. "I thought I left you as many words to tell you what I couldn't say." Her response is feeble, she knows. But it's something at this time of nothing.

"I never thought- I just, AUgh, you are so frustrating, I knew you went through some stuff, but enough for you to actively seek out for revenge? For you to say that in front of _those_ women?"

"I don't even know who they are, how can you blame me? I was trapped, I didn't know what else to say, I thought I was acting the way you wanted me to. Didn't you tell me to be respectful? Didn't you show me some ways to start conversations and how to end them?" She speaks quickly, unnerved by how Hatsumomo is acting, but she wants Hatsumomo to get the point-that she didn't want to come here, that she didn't want to be around so many people. Tsukiko knows that they don't know who she is and what she's done, but she has told them before that she can't handle many people.

"I- I wanted to show you off to my friends, I never really wanted you to actually speak to any of my older relatives, but you did and I just-" Hatsumomo trails of with a helpless shrug, and Tsukiko feels immense guilt.

She didn't mean to make a scene-but she did. She didn't mean to act the way she did-but she did it anyhow. She doesn't like this feeling, this feeling of uselessness, where she can't get shit to go right, where she's better off alone and content than being around people and stupid and scared. Tsukiko doesn't like this feeling of drowning, she doesn't like the tightness in her throat, nor the pains in her abdomen.

Tears prick at Tsukiko's eyes, and she can help sob the escapes pass her lips. "I'm sorry," she mutters out, bringing her hands up to cover her face, swallowing her sobs and wiping away her tears, "I didn't mean any of this to happen. I'm sorry. I'm sorry."

Tsukiko cups her eyes, blocking out any light and surrounding herself into darkness. She tries her best to block out the noise, but the darkness only seems to enhance it. So Tsukiko removes her hands and opens her eyes again, blinking away the tears. Glancing away from Hatsumomo, who wears a worried expression on her face, she spots Maaya, who leans heavily on her cane.

Maaya is approaching them slowly, and Hatsumomo sees that too. The both of them straighten their backs and try their best to put a blank face on. It's hard, as Tsukiko's eyes are still red, and Hatsumomo's usually tanned face is red. Maaya is wheezing by the time she reaches the duo.

"So," she starts off, voice a thick whisper, and hard to hear in a place like this, where people chat and people talk and people speak, "who was the one to promise revenge on the people who hurt them? Who promised to marry a son once she did so?" Maaya's green eyes squint heavily underneath her eyebrows, and Hatsumomo looks away from her great-grandmother.

"I made no promises," Tsukiko says, scowling lightly. "Nor do I intend in returning whence I obtain my goal."

"This is a political gathering, dear, they told me that you said you would marry the boy when you returned-"

"And I didn't say when that will happen. If it will ever happen."

"You don't plan on coming back…?" Hatsumomo speaks softly, her green eyes widened in shock.

"I never came here from my own free will."

"But you're my friend! Friends don't leave friends behind!" Her voice becomes higher, and she's so close to shouting.

Tsukiko didn't know what to think. She's left friends before, in her first life, in the cave, _Kyoko_. They weren't the first, nor will they be the last. With a soft sigh, Tsukiko is more composed now than she ever has been. "I've left behind people, I left someone to live, and that's why I'm here. I want my honor back for leaving her like that, I want what I lost."

Even if an eye for an eye makes the world blind, she's willing to do much more than that for what's left of her honor.

* * *

Her wounds have scarred over already, the one dragging from her ear to jaw itches everytime she moves her face, and the ones on her back pains her every time she twists or bends and the one of her chest is no better. She's honestly surprised that boy at the party, Kakuzu, didn't feel repulsed. If anything, he seemed to enjoy looking at her face.

Tsukiko's intentions have been discussed between Maaya and Hatsumomo, even if she had to compromise a little to give back what she owes Maaya. Like stated when she first arrived here, she will spend a month helping around, which should be easy considering that she will now have the right nutrients to properly function for manual labor.

Hatsumomo is _very_ against Tsukiko leaving, now actually insisting on sharing the same futon, or at least spending copious amounts of time together. Tsukiko isn't against this at all, she enjoys the bond Hatsumomo shares, although she does feel bad that she isn't spending more time with her other friends and family. Hatsumomo says that they don't know how to handle being with a 'cripple geisha'.

The two girls, Tsukiko and Hatsumomo, are outside, as a part of Hatsumomo's rehabilitation into the world again, and for Tsukiko to get an understanding of how the markets work here. There's a warm breeze, the grassy hills outside blowing in the wind, and the sun high and bright. The market is full of adults and children of all ages, and all of them look like Hatsumomo. Dark or tanned skin, green or blue eyes, and black or brown hair.

Everyone is talking, and everyone looks at Tsukiko weirdly. She assumes that it's the scars, but she also believes that it's because she is so different from them. _A living ghost_ , the man at the event called her. She doesn't blame him at all; she knows she should be dead too.

They stop by many stalls, looking through an assortment of all kinds of things, from fabrics to foods originating from all corners of the world. The smells, good and bad, dance around all kinds of people. Some are more potent than others, but they still fascinate Tsukiko.

This is so much more than she has seen before, most of this never in her past life. There are more people here than she has seen before in this life, and they seem to hold more emotions than she has ever seen before. While there is a lot of people, and a lot of talking, there isn't any shouting, much bartering or fights. It's all… happiness.

A familiar voice catches her attention from the woman Hatsumomo is chatting with, one that she met in that family meeting of Maaya's. It's Kakuzu, she notes, silently amuse by the coincidence, even if this village is small.

"I see the silver woman-girl! I see her!" He cries out to his father, pointing at her but looking behind to his father. "You told me that we'd never see her, that she can't be seen in the day!"

The man, who she presumes to be his father, looks sheepish. "That was when I thought that an onryō had come for Reo, that old bastard."

"I want to go over to her, I want to do that," Kakuzu shouts out, turning a few heads towards him. Hatsumomo has yet to finish her conversation with the older woman.

"Her face is scarred, though, do you know what happens to women whose faces are scarred?"

"I know that! And I don't care, she looks interesting, she looks like more fun than you. She was more fun than you!" Disregarding his father's lame attempts to keep him, Kakuzu slips past people and soon enough stands in front of Tsukiko.

"Hi," she says curtly, looking down at him, "I heard what you said to your father. Am I really that interesting?"

Kakuzu hesitates, his mouth partly open. A breeze pushes Tsukiko's hair around, so she ends up gathering it over a shoulder, and his long bangs are ruffled too, but he doesn't bother with them. Instead, he stares at her hair, as if regretting coming over here. "Is it true that you're a vengeful spirit or the living dead? Papa says that you came for a cousin of his, but you didn't even look at him, I was watching you the whole day that day and you only spoke with the oldest ladies there but you did nothing and only disappeared after displeasing them."

Tsukiko smiles at Kakuzu, and watches as his father approaches them with a scowl darkening his face. She places a thin hand on top of his head, "I'm glad that you... liked to see me, even when suspicions follow me closely."

His father is now behind him and places a firm hand on his shoulder. "I'm sorry, miss, this is the first time he's done this, and I'm shocked at his actions."

She waves a hand, dismissing the apology, "Don't worry about it. Kakuzu-chan here seems like great company."

"That's because I am!" He says with a small bounce, and his father only seems to grimace at him. "Isn't that right, Tsukiko-chan?"

"He is a-"

"I believe that It's time for us to get home, Kaku-chan's mother needs him as soon as possible, isn't that right? You know how sickly she can get when you're not there." His father says suddenly, interrupting Tsukiko, then directing his words to his son. She doesn't like that, and her eyebrows lower slightly in protest.

"I believe I was speaking before you?" She says, in a moment of slight agitation, almost the same that took her over in that meeting she was forced to attend.

"And I believe that it is my child you were speaking to," he fires back, a sneer on his face, "don't speak to adults like that."

Tsukiko turns her face, but her eyes are still on him. She's dealt with assholes before, but she doesn't want to make a scene, but she wants to get rid of this… energy within her. This isn't what she wants, too many conflicts she can see. She is still injured, her wounds are just beginning to heal, her mind finally accepting her fate.

"You are almost a woman, now, you are too old to be acting the way you are. I don't care where you come from, or what kind of prejudices you hold for some people, but you are a coming woman, learn your respects."

"She may be a woman to be," Hatsumomo comes from behind Tsukiko, who looks at her with a skeptical gaze, "but she's a determined girl, she's seen more than you will, and she will do more. She's a mercenary for hire, and I have enough saved to hire an amateur like her."

The man looks at Hatsumomo, then to Tsukiko, with an incredulous look in his eyes. He pulls his lips back, but not in a sneer or snarl, but in a 'what the fuck' kind of way. He pushes Kakuzu back a little. "You…"

"Are not a liar. I have seen many things, and done them. I seek to avenge my friend, and I need the funds to help me get closer to my goal." Tsukiko says, taking a step closer and watching as he takes a step back. "Do you wanna know how I got my scars?"

"You're crazy!" He shouts, before taking Kakuzu into his arms and running off. He bumps into people, and a few looks at Tsukiko, but she only drags a finger down the scar on her face.

* * *

"I'm sorry if I said too much," Hatsumomo says while serving dinner that night, "I know how awful he can be to women. Especially girls, he's very… old-fashioned."

Tsukiko is quiet for a moment, bringing her dish closer to her. She doesn't look at Hatsumomo, but she nods towards her direction, thankful for the food. "It's okay. I find it… easier to think me as a mercenary than- than a wanderer. Hopefully, the word doesn't go around, and I'll have to prove myself."

Hatsumomo is the one to be quiet now. She settles herself down at the low table before she speaks again. "How… how easy is it?"

"Killing?" Tsukiko muses as she takes her chopsticks, and begins to eat, ignoring the short thanks, Hatsumomo does before eating. She sees Hatsumomo flinch, lowering her eyes to her lap. "It's different for everyone. Kaguya-Hime did it with ease, everyone in my clan did it with ease. For others, though, civilians or… weaker people, things of the like it can seem like they just killed themselves."

"What was it like for you? Your first kill." Hatsumomo eats slowly, but her green eyes slowly rise up to meet Tsukiko.

"I had to die first before my first kill. It's tradition." Death of the family, death of the soul and the pride and the happiness and everything in between. Death of the once solid reality and the once one and only body and soul and mind.

"What- what did they do to you-if you don't mind me asking."

Tsukiko remains silent for a long moment, but she fills it with taking a bite of her food. "They destroyed everything we knew. From a young age, I was aware of what was happening. I was taken from my mother, from my friends and my life. I was taken to a secluded place, all rocks and no life. No life. At all. They had us wear only one set of clothing, and if they were torn or destroyed, well, we had to compromise.

At first, I was indifferent to their treatment of us. They rarely fed us anything good, always pushing us to our limits whether we were dying or dead. I thought that this was how everything was in life.

 _(Even if it wasn't, she knew how people should treat her, and how she should treat people. She knew what they were doing was wrong, but she was still drained from the rebirthing and the_ removement _and the abuse. She couldn't fight like she used to. Not until they taught her how to, and even then she was heartless. Without her heart, she had no courage or passion or honor. She had nothing.)_

Then after seeing one of my sensei's on the floor, the way she was, it was too much. I took a friend with me to fight the man who put us there, who made sure we were weapons of destruction, who made sure we knew our place. Kyoko was my friends' name. We had been friends for a long time. We protected each other.

But that wasn't enough to keep herself alive. We left the secluded life, left everything we knew behind. We traveled for longer than I could count, longer than I am able to count. Days and nights blended in with each other, our skin not used to the harsh sun and branches and sensitive to the leaves and flowers and grass. We were fine in the nights, but slept in the day, or at least the best we could, never given much time to sleep before the escape, and even then the forest was alive when the sun was up.

She's dead now. Kyoko. My friend. It was sudden, and I lost what held me together. I did things I should not have, and I wanted things that were long past. I am not sure how I even lasted that long alone, left to what's inside of me, of what can take me whenever it feels like. All I know is that I need my reprisal. My one goal."

Hatsumomo stays quiet, and it means nothing to Tsukiko. Her silence holds no words, and she doesn't what she should expect from it. She sits here, her heart bleeding, breaking, tearing itself over the memories that this body hold, that this body has had to endure. Her heart is in her throat now, and Tsukiko does not like it. She doesn't like it at all.

"That is," Hatsumomo mutters, her eyes holding more emotion than Tsukiko can even begin to comprehend, "That is so sad. What you've had to endure. What you've been put through. You're here now, though, and that's all that should matter."

Tsukiko feels a wave of repulsion. "I don't want your pity, Hatsumomo, what I want is for you to understand that I can't behave like you or any other woman, I can't be eloquent, I can't be fair or pretty. I am a tool, I was born to be used by those above me, I was trained to be used and thrown away. I don't want your pity. I don't want your sympathy. I want your understanding. Your empathy. That is all I ask for."

A surprised look covers Hatsumomo's face, and Tsukiko rises from her spot. "I didn't mean-"

"You don't mean to do anything-I get that. What I don't is that you tell me what I should care about. I _can't_ care about anything. Once I pay your debt to Maaya-sensei, I will go. I will leave you and everyone here behind. What I care about is my retribution, I am owed a life and I will take everything to compensate for it."

Hatsumomo opens her mouth to say something, but Tsukiko sends her a look that closes her mouth. Tsukiko straightens her back, squares her shoulders, and lifts her chin.

This isn't what she was raised to do. She wasn't raised to kill. To take lives for one.

But it is what she was raised for. She was raised to kill, to take and to destroy and to burn and break and tear down. She wasn't raised to sit idly, to work off debts and struggle to feed herself while trying to keep a steady and happy life.

She wasn't raised for this life, and she wasn't raised for the last life.

* * *

It's a rainy day the next day. Tsukiko can't see it where she sleeps, but the sound is enough. It's chaotic outside. The rain makes too many noises, too close together. She hates it. The stifling heat in the room is enough to force Hatsumomo out, seeking something of hers.

It smells weird, too. But that is none of Tsukiko's business. She's lived in places where the weather affected how the place smelled, because living in a town where there are neighboring cow farms can do that. But this smells different. It clings to the insides of her nostrils, forcing itself to be known.

This is enough for her to finally leave the room, to leave the building. Curiously enough, there are people shouting outside, something the rain muted and the walls covered. It's a mix of fear, Tsukiko can sense, and also retaliation. People run past her as she closes the sliding door, hair and clothes wet and dragging behind children and possessions behind them. They are the ones screaming in fear.

The ones shouting in retaliation, however, is another story. Burning houses cackle outside, and the rain doesn't even seem to be doing anything to the steadily rising flames. There are no torches, no bottles with pieces of cloth in their nozzles, nothing that can produce such a fire.

It's only when she spots someone spit the fire when she realizes that this isn't anything she's seen before. The people doing this are all wearing similar clothing, she sees, and calls them stupid. She sees four or five setting homes blazing and running to burn more. The flames tint the grey sky purple and red, and she hears the door behind her open. Hatsumomo stands behind her, eyes red and still leaking.

"This is what I woke to." She mutters. "I was looking for my dolly. I'm scared."

"This is what I've been wanting." Tsukiko looks to her friend, "I've been wanting the release of heaven." With saying that, she begins her walk down the street. She passes only one house before she encounters one of the culprits, who wears some blue garment. The sleeves are cut short, and a katana is strapped to his side.

She doesn't stop him when he pulls back a hand, and she doesn't stop him when he strikes her down. But during that time she manufacturers herself a dagger-like thing. It's the size of her forearm, but it's handle has grooves to dig her fingers into, and the blade itself blending smoothly from the handle. While she's down, she hides her creation, and endures another kick with only a grunt.

This is what she wants again. Using her weight to pull herself up, she wastes no time to go for him, slashing at an arm that was coming for her again, then slashing again across his chest. She leaves him there.

Someone screams behind her, and she's sure it's Hatsumomo, but Tsukiko wastes no time seeking out another victim. Again and again, she slashes, and again she stabs, and again and again and again.

Eventually, she's on a street she doesn't know. Far from Maaya's home. Few homes are seen here, and all are burning. One still holds it's residents. There is a child screaming, and a man shouting. The door is open, and another one of those men in blue stands there, his back facing her.

The time she gets to the door, he is already making his way in the home. His slender form slinking in the house, katana out and both and occupied. Tsukiko takes her time with this one, observing his actions. He's quiet, but she's muted in his presence. The route the man takes is towards the child's screams, and the man urges it to hush.

Flames lick at a few windows, yet to make it's way inside. The man in blue's breath begins to become harsh, his back tense, and his katana in his hold shaky. Only two sliding doors are closed off the three, one on each side of the hallway.

An echo of a slap is followed by the silence of the child, and the man from the party stands there, shocked to see these people. He seemingly doesn't see the man in front of him, but points behind towards Tsukiko. "You!-" He manages before his face is cut at by a strike from above. The man in blue, once he kills the father, looks behind and sees her, still in her sleeping robes.

Tsukiko doesn't waste any time to strike him down and hastily makes her way into the room the father came from. She spots Kakuzu huddled in a corner, on top of his folded futon and blankets. Tsukiko sheaths her weapons, placing it between the obi and the actual clothes, and takes no consideration of his condition or what he feels about his father lying dead just outside the door as she leads takes him by the arm and lifts him up, disregarding his complaints. She makes sure to check if there is anyone else, and to check again if the father and other man are truly dead.

She leaves the home and traces her steps back to Maaya's home. They pass burning buildings and more dead bodies. Kakuzu only cries some more. She isn't used to this weight being on her, so by the time she reaches the door she knows all too well, she nearly collapses to her knees. Pushing the boy off her, she places the heel of her hand on her knees and tries to find her breath again.

 _This is such shit. Shit, I shouldn't have done this. I should have left the boy there._

When she does find her breath after a few minutes of Kakuzu standing there with tears in his eyes, she finally stands and slides open the door. Almost instantly she sees Maaya and Hatsumomo there, setting things inside of large square pieces of fabric. There is a third one, empty.

"There you are, girl," Maaya rasps out, her voice scratchy and almost more irritating to the ears, "Get your stuff ready. We're going on the road. Well, we'll be leaving, I don't particularly care what you do."

"Please be quick, I don't know what you did, but they're now killing people." Hatsumomo places a large and folded fan inside of her makeshift bag, tears at her eyes. "They're angry, and it's making me- it's making sad and scared."

Standing there almost stupidly with a child in her hand, Tsukiko only manages a tangle of words and noises, suddenly incapable of basic speech. This is too much, why are these people here, why are they burning homes? What is she doing? Maaya looks back at her with white and heavy eyebrows.

"What are ya waiting for, girl? Get packin', otherwise you'll be goin' cold and naked."

Her tongue doesn't seem to fit well in her mouth no more, but she understands a command when she hears one. She nearly jogs to the back room where she stayed with Hatsumomo, and breezes through her clothing, picking what she thought was best to wear for a travel, and made sure that there was a needle set in case if she needed to improvise with Kakuzu along.

With all of her stuff cradled in her hands, she dumps them by the empty cloth on the ground, then scours the place for anything else. She stops minding the following Kakuzu, who clutches at the waist of her yukata, but she takes care to jostle him around too much. She makes sure to check the indoor garden Maaya has and grabs a handful of seeds. Tsukiko doesn't know why, but she makes sure she has a variety.

In the end, with all of her clothes folded, a sack of needlework and supplies, and a small bag of seeds, she ties it all together, feeling the eyes of Maaya and Hatsumomo at her back.

"What about the boy?" Hatsumomo asks in a light voice, "What happened to Hirohito?"

"Dead," Tsukiko says curtly.

Hatsumomo is shocked and looks repulsed, but Maaya is unfazed. "What about his mother? What the house on fire?"

"The house was on fire. I didn't sense anyone else other than the father and the man who was breaking in." Her words are short and straight to the point.

"How do you know that?" Hatsumomo says taking her makeshift bag by the knot she made and lifts it with a small grunt. "She could still be there."

"I believe you saw me create a weapon from my own body, used it to attack and kill a man, and went off to repeat those actions. I'm sure that I saw no one else."

"Enough of the shit talk. Tsukiko, get your stuff ready as I have asked, I want you to help us get out of here safely. Hatsumomo, stop your nonsense talk, if she said that she didn't 'sense' anyone else or whatever, then so be it. I want to get out of here as fast as I can. I am an old lady and I can't move as I used to." Maaya snarls through gritted teeth. Her voice is rough and there's an edge that pushes Tsukiko to defy it, but she feels responsible for Hatsumomo.

And after that, they set off. Tsukiko carries nothing but her bone dagger, as she's the only one who can fight. Kakuzu is set to carry her stuff, as it is light enough for him, while Maaya and Hatsumomo respectively carry their own bags. Tsukiko feels bad that this is all she can do, she still owes Maaya a great deal.

 _What goes around, comes around_. Tsukiko would greatly appreciate it if she didn't get swindled in the future, regardless of the circumstances.

They are out of the village in no time, although that is contributed to the fact that Maaya lives so close to the main road. It takes them much longer than that to get to the point where they can't see the first home, and even longer before they can't see the smoke. There is many people taking the same road as them, the same people from the burning village.

Most of them hold one possession, and few had enough sense to do what Maaya did during that time. These people are all sweaty with fear, which stinks them up enough that Tsukiko can actually smell* them. Only a few men have soot on them, but they are the younger ones, the ones that would have been sent to fetch their families belongings from their burning homes.

Maaya walks to her right, with Hatsumomo walking with Kakuzu in hand to the left. Kakuzu tries to take Tsukiko's hand every so often, and she'd send him a smile, but then he would let of her hand. She's not sure on how to feel about it.

Once the sun hits it's peak height and begins to fall is when the group finally stops. With the sun still in the sky, there is still much time of light, but some of the older men and women don't think they will make far. They start to break off, most going forward to neighboring villages, while only a few remain. Tsukiko discusses how much she's willing to go for Maaya, Hatsumomo, and Kakuzu.

"I want to leave as soon as I can." She warns them with a serious gaze, Kakuzu almost taking her words to heart. "I have one goal, and I want to see it done before I die."

Throughout the entire trip, Kakuzu has been quiet. Tsukiko thinks it's an odd behavior for a child, let alone him.

"But- we need you!" Hatsumomo cries out, taking a step towards Tsukiko.

"Need me for what? Company? I'm not a lap pet, I can't just sit there and look pretty and have civil discussions with people. That's not how I want to fulfill my life."

"But you can't leave us after all that's happened!"

"After what happened? I witness my dear friend die and end up nearly dead at your doorstep?" Tsukiko maintains, trying her best not to fall to the weakness. She enjoys being in their presence, she really, truly does, but like she said, she's no lap dog, she doesn't want to be petted and coddled, not like that.

Hatsumomo then glares at Tsukiko with wet eyes. "I thought we were friends!" She snaps at her.

"I thought we are."

"Then why won't you stay?"

"Friends don't keep friends away from their true potential, from their goal." Tsukiko rebukes.

"But I don't want to lose another friend, why do all of my friends leave me?"

Tsukiko remains silent and starts to fidget with her dagger. Maybe her friends left her because they told her their intentions and she wouldn't believe it…

"Please," Hatsumomo now takes another step, and a tear rolls down one of her eyes, "Please, don't leave me like the others."

Tsukiko hardens her stance and takes a breath. "I'm not sorry, but I have to go. I need to do this for my _honor_ , what would you do if your honor was taken? What would you do if your friend was killed for no reason, and you left to die?"

"Then take me with you!" She proclaims suddenly, making even Kakuzu make a weird face at her. "I'll learn, I promise, I just don't want to be alone."

"You'll be even more alone out there with me," Tsukiko promises, "I won't be using the main roads, or many at all. I won't sleep at inns or go shop for food. We won't be going far into villages, and we'll rely solely on the earth and what she's got to offer us." Tsukiko starts off, and she looks Hatsumomo in the eyes as she does so, "This isn't child's play, Hatsumomo-chan, this isn't for the weak-hearted. The only reason I lived because I was bred for it. You are a geisha, you'll dance to soft music and you'll serve drinks to men and women at parties. I am a warrior, I'll cut people apart with productions of my own body and I'll serve no man or woman who won't pay me for the life that I took.

We are too different to do what you just asked, Hatsumomo-chan. I like you, I really do, but I won't, and I can't, bring someone like you along."

Hatsumomo is quiet for a long moment. A bird trills in the blue sky, the grass dances to the wind, and the people around them mutter among themselves.

Kakuzu sniffles, and tugs at Tsukiko's yukata. "What will happen to me? I saw what happened to Chichi, and he's not going to come back, is he?"

Tsukiko sighs. "He won't, Kakuzu-chan. I don't know what will happen to you."

"You said that living with you is very hard, but I'm not like Hatsumomo!" He declares, and Tsukiko has to muffle a groan. "I can survive in the wild, Chichi taught me how to trade with strangers and get the best deal, he taught me how to guess the weather, and how to know if someone is lying!"

"I'm not willing to carry you everywhere so you'll be my lie detector, Kakuzu-chan," Tsukiko says, "Maybe when you're big and strong and take on any man that blocks your path, then you can come with me. Hopefully, it will be after I complete my goal, maybe not, but until then you have to get better, be stronger. I can't guarantee you anything in life, but even if you don't get strong or big, I do hope our paths will cross again."

His face falls, and he only seems to hear 'I can't take you with me'. Tsukiko quickly begins to speak again, "We will meet again, but not until a long time. Hell, once I get what I want, I'll actively seek you out, how do you like that?"

"I don't want to left alone with people I don't know!"

"Hush, child," Maaya butts in, tapping his leg with her cane, "she said she'll find you. And when she does maybe you will be old enough to understand why she wouldn't let you come with her."

"I want you to have the best you can get from your life, Kakuzu-chan." Tsukiko smiles, "Don't take it away because you want to follow me around the world looking for something that's about me. Look for something that's for you. I don't care if it's wealth or fame, but you deserve what you work for."

"And what about me? Don't I get any reassurance in my life?" Hatsumomo grunts in a manner that is not like her.

Tsukiko heaves an uncertain sigh, and her eyebrows begin to furrow together in worry. "I don't know what to tell you anymore, Hatsumomo, I've tried to tell you, but I've got to go, and if I have to leave you on a bad note, I will. I don't want to, but my honor is on the line."

"Then leave."

"What?"

"Leave. If your honor is more important than your real and living friends, then go."

She's taken aback. _Real_ and _living_ , _fake_ and _dead_ , they all hold some meaning to her heart. But apparently Hatsumomo doesn't care.

Tsukiko huffs. "I'll leave, but not on your words." She then turns to Maaya and gives her a tight-lipped grimace. Hatsumomo only glares and walks away.

"I know what she can do, girl. It's not comparable to you at all," Maaya grunts, "And don't fret about the debt. You paid that off when you helped us get out of there alive."

Tsukiko nods almost solemnly, still nerved by Hatsumomo's comments. "Thank you for helping me in my time of need. It really helped me."

"Now, I don't want to see you 'round these parts till I'm well dead. Get going, I imagine you're anxious to get back your honor."

Tsukiko makes sure to give Kakuzu a few things of hers, to lighten the load(and to make sure that someone was there, even if she didn't help his dead father, and killed someone in front of him), she wanted to give Hatsumomo some reassurance, but she couldn't find her, and made sure to give Maaya an awkward handshake.

It's the first in a while that she's seeing the world through a new lens, and she hopes that she doesn't fail as bad as before.

* * *

While she is traveling, she tries new things with her chakra, experimenting with what she could do with it. Her knowledge of the show is sparse, especially now that a decade has passed since her rebirthing. When she was in the fields, she would try to run as fast as she could, placing her chakra in her flesh and muscles instead of her bones.

That proved fruitful. She would dash from one end of the fields to the other. It tired her greatly, leaving her almost dead on her feet.

* * *

The thing with trying to learn something by yourself is that you're probably going to kill yourself. Tsukiko, at this point, only wants to see how far she can go. If she wants to see those men burn, she'll make them. She'll make sure that her face is the last thing they'll see.

She knows that doing this is dangerous, she knows that doing it unsupervised is even worse.

But she digresses. Tsukiko know's the ins and the outs of how her body works, even with the additional chakra system and all. Better yet, she knows her body's limits. Somewhat.

She isn't too sure on how to regulate her chakra, to use it sparingly and to save some for later. All that she remembers being taught in those caves is how to kill before your killed, to use everything you've got until there's nothing left to give.

It's fucking bull. She wants to know more. She wants to do more. If she can't do that, then why did she even say she wanted her honor back? They're going to ring her neck, and that will only be it.

But why should she listen to that side of herself? She said she wanted her honor, and it took her that long to realize what she wanted, so why waste the time wandering around, when there is a goal sitting right in front of her?

So, she begins her experiments. Tsukiko knows that Tobimaru(Tobihama? Tobirama? Whatever his damned name is) is the first one to do all of this in the original timeline. She's not yet sure if her being here makes a difference, nor does she know whether he's even living yet or if the shinobi villages are about to be made yet, but honestly she has shit to get done.

Figuring the ins and outs of how the chakra works come first. Tsukiko barely knows how to read or write, so she knows she'll have to be vigilant in remembering all of this.

Her first attempt she tries to just push all of her chakra to her legs. This doesn't work and leaves her with burned legs and one bruised stomach. She waits two days for it to go away, while slowly making her way west.

The second attempt, when her burns were now pink and her tummy a tad bit better, she tries to make a steady flow to her legs. It worked... sorta. She went faster, but it was more like, my legs have more energy. Tsukiko makes a side note to herself that this may be a good way to the super strength.

The third attempt, she tries putting _more_ chakra at a steady flow, only two days after the previous one. It held similar results, but more pain. She waits four days, figuring she just needs more rest.

Her fourth, fifth, and sixth attempts all held the same results, but varying amounts of pain and a slight difference in speeds. The seventh attempt, she tries to spread the areas of where the chakra goes. This proves more fruitful than the previous attempts.

Still, her muscles are sore, there are burns on her legs, and her stomach bruised. Her scar only makes it look more... nastier.

The eighth attempt, she gets better results. She's getting the speed, but not the distance. This really bothers Tsukiko, but she's got nothing better to do while she's traveling. The ninth and the tenth she experiments with the distance, thinking it's how she runs it. It's a so-so, in her books, as long as she has herself running beforehand, she can get the distance she wants, but even then it goes no further than thirty or forty feet.

Her eleventh attempt is more of a 'what have I learned' kinda thing. She starts off at a light run, easing herself to a sprint, and pulses her chakra to her legs and stomach all the way up to her shoulders. Tsukiko takes off and finds herself further than she originally anticipated.

* * *

Eventually, she reaches a new terrain. Instead of the fields, there's now forest, instead of the open sky, there's now leaves. She's been traveling for days now, and she thinks that she's becoming soft. It's taken her to get this far…

But she digresses, at least she's still alive, right? She hasn't seen another human since that last day, and other than that she's been bumbling through the land, killing anything slower than her. Her makeshift bag has been torn, so she decided to ditch much of her clothes behind. The seeds she took from Maaya are now shoved behind her obi.

Another day passes, and she enjoys herself the first bath in a river in her life. The rise of the sun doesn't help make the water warm, but it's clean, and clean is all that she needs right now. Her clothes have been dumped by a fallen tree not far from where she stands, her bone dagger resting on top of it all, but who is going to take her clothes here? And what would make them think that she won't fight naked?

Tsukiko hums almost merrily. The song has long lost all connotations to its true meaning, and she's not sure if it's even a true song from her past, but it's something to pass the time.

The water is only up to her bellybutton, and that's because she can't swim. She's never had the ability in her past life, and this is almost the first time seeing such a body of water in this one. Tsukiko knows it's stupid, but she really doesn't like deep waters. This river, however, doesn't flow fast. The push against her is there, true, but it's not enough to take her down.

When she is done with her bathing, she wades back to the rocky shore, ignoring the obvious and sharp stones. Patting herself dry with her hands, she starts to clear away the sharp stones so she can sun dry herself off. The sun feels warm against her skin, and Tsukiko is content.

She stays there for a long time, and the sun peeking from the horizon rises and rises until she bakes on the silky rocks. A rustling behind her doesn't startle her, but Tsukiko makes sure to keep an ear out for whatever it may be.

Blatant whispering and some more movement, then quietness. Tsukiko remains still. Some more rustling and whispers, then one of them comes out from wherever they were. Clothing is dropped on her, and she lurches up and pulls herself to her feet and kicks the fabric away.

The boy screeches, turns red, and covers his eyes. Tsukiko only stands there, wondering if it's too late to run. There is at least one more person hiding. Spreading her senses, she finds them behind a tree.

"P-p-p-p-put on _some clothes_ , I beg of you!" The one in front of her sputters and falls to his butt.

Tsukiko stands there, legs spread, arms ready to fight, and naked. She's not going to listen to this boy, she thinks to herself. "No," she warns him, "I want to know your name first. Both of your names."

He whines, still hiding his face behind his hands. "I-I-I'm Hashirama, there's no one else here."

"Bullshit," she warns, "Do you think me stupid? Give me their name, or I'll take your leg."

"M-my leg?"

"Yes, and I'll roast it like I did that man who stole my- my, fuck it, I'll just end this now." A burst of chakra pushes her to the one behind the tree. He yelps, stumbles back, but he actually has enough sense to try and lift his hands to cover his face before her leg came down on him.

He pushes her back, black eyes wide and black hair flying, and advances on her. He raises a hand to punch her, but she easily swipes it away and raises her left leg to kick his abdomen. The boy collapses like that, clutching his stomach with a pained face.

A stick breaks behind her and she pivots on her heel to see the red-faced boy behind her. His lips are pulled back in a snarl, but his eyes betray him. Fear and panic.

"You can end this now if you give me his name." She clenches her fist and begins to sway her weight from one foot to the other.

"Madara," the fallen boy behind her coughs out, stumbling back to his feet, and she has to admit, he looks fucking stupid compared to his animated self, especially acting the way he is after her kick, "Please, put some clothes on."

Tsukiko snorts, ignoring the fact that he, and Hashirama, are major influencers of the future of this world. "Who has time for clothes when they're washing?"

"You weren't in the river, we thought you were dead, but we saw you breathing," Hashirama squeaks out, averting his eyes to the side.

"I was sunbathing."

"Like a cat? Couldn't you do that with clothes on?" Madara says, his shoulders hunched and ready for another blow.

"I just got out of the river. I was waiting to be dry."

"Put on some clothes! Please!" Hashirama suggests urgently.

Tsukiko snickers, and slinks towards where she's dumped her clothing, close to the river. While getting dressed, she makes sure to keep an eye out for the boys, who seem to not even want to look at her.

"I'm dressed now," she calls out when she's finished, the top part of her yukata hanging loosely around her shoulders with her bone dagger between the obi, "you can stop acting like children now."

"We aren't children, we're-" Madara begins to say, but then cuts himself off.

"You're what? Babes still at your mother's tits?"

Madara's cheeks turn rosy, but it's not like Hashirama's raging blush when she was still in her birthday suit.

"Look," she begins, "I don't care who you are, where you come from, but I have things to do, people to take care of, ya know. I probably shouldn't be hanging around people your age."

"But we're only thirteen? You look thirteen?"

"I'm, like, ten or eleven, actually," She starts, but doesn't get to end.

"But those _scars_?" Hashirama questions, placing emphasis on the last word, and standing further away from her than she would have like.

"I said I have some people to take care of. I'll do anything to get to them."

"Even murder?" Madara inquiries quickly.

"Even murder," Tsukiko confirms with a nod.

It's silent now, so Tsukiko throws her head up to look at the sky. It's bright today, and there are little clouds in the great blue. She turns her face back to the boys, "What do you two do for fun."

"What we-"

"Do for fun," she nods, pressing her lips together.

"But…" Hashirama quavers, "You're a stranger to us? You nearly- you attacked us too."

"You were strangers to me too, until I figured you could do nothing to me." She hums. "Just give me this, and I'll think about leaving you alone."

"We go rock skipping, sometimes we spar, but other than that we talk." Madara snaps at Tsukiko, black eyes glaring.

"Cool." Tsukiko begins to casually kick the rocks underneath her around. "I've never skipped a rock before."

Hashirama gives her a look that's almost between ' _has she been living under a rock_ ' and ' _I need to teach her this thing, it's so cool and so- so- so-_ '. "You've never skipped… _rocks_?"

"Nope," she maintained, "This is basically the first time I've seen a river too. Or any body of water, for that matter."

Madara scowls in disbelief. Hashirama beams. Tsukiko wonders why she hasn't run off yet.

"It's easy, if I can teach Madara, then I'm sure I can teach you!"

Tsukiko hums. "Are you sure? It took my mother five years for me to say my first word to her."

"Really?"

"No."

"Then you won't let me teach you?"

Tsukiko shrugs, side glances at a glaring Madara, and then speaks again, "I'm not going to stop you. I'm still waiting for sun fall before I resume my travels."

"The night is dangerous for a girl." Madara sniffles, turning coal black eyes towards the river.

"It is when you're as loud as you were when you were stalking me."

Hashirama grimaces. "We weren't stalking you."

"O-Oh, you were, you were watching me, an unknowing girl, while she was nake-"

" _I didn't mean it!_ "

"Sure, sure," Tsukiko soothes, making the gesture with her hand. "Now, you said that you'd teach me how to skip rocks, no?"

* * *

Red bleeds into purple and blue, the once bright sun setting far to the distance. It hangs largely behind the tall trees, something Tsukiko knows she wouldn't have appreciated before Kyoko died.

Hashirama and Madara left hours ago, after Tsukiko made those comments. Madara left before Hashirama, vaguely saying something about a sick brother. Hashirama left because Tsukiko was being an ass to him the entire time.

She likes it here. The water is different, it doesn't smell as bad as it did in the caves, and it holds this natural scent to it. The scar on her face hurts a little, but that is because she had fun while teasing the two boys. Tsukiko can't believe she did what she did, saying all of that. She would only say that to close friends, like the ones from her past life. Never in this one, not like this.

Maybe she'll stay for a while, keep practicing what she's taught herself, see what she can leech off of Hashirama and Madara. They are, after all, the heirs to their clans. They'll be getting the best from the best.

While finding a place to curl up with a trunk, she makes sure to tie her obi tight, not wanting to lose her bone dagger or her seeds.

* * *

 _This is the first time since August I've posted a chapter, I feel so proud :D_

 _I'm sorry about the delay. School started, I didn't have the time nor could I find the motivation to write. I'll try my best to write more, as it's my goal, but I can't be too sure on if I'm going to update next week :/_

 _I'm still iffy on how this went, and I'm sure you could tell where I forgot to add something then added them afterward._

 _ **10,784 words** , the most I've ever written in a chapter :))_


	14. Seeking the Thrill but Finding Change

The morning the next day brings her nothing new. Tsukiko rises from where she has slumbered, gathering everything she can carry and makes her way to… to wherever.

She wakes before the sun has even shown its rays to the world, but the life in the night has already sensed that their time has come to an end, and there is this eerie silence that almost mutes the downfalls of her bare feet. Navy transitions to something lighter, then lighter and lighter until the sky is a sapphire blue. Tsukiko watches the stars fade from her eyes, and beholds the red glory that is the sun. Crimson washes over everything blue and turns it scarlet, and orange and yellow and red rings the white sun.

Tsukiko sees this by the river, sitting crossed legged and elbows leaning heavily on her knees. Her hands are clasped tightly together, her body almost unaccustomed to this slowness that is taking over her. She doesn't want this the way it is. She wants to be moving, like the river. She wants to be holding a staff in her hands as slashes and stabs and cuts through the air.

With a huff of impatience and even indignation, she rises, wipes the dust and stones off of her butt, and begins to pace. She has a chance to change the future, especially after meeting Hashirama and Madara. Will she change it? Probably. WIll she want to? Fuck no, and a thousand times that.

Her presence being here has affected many things. She wasn't supposed to be born here, like a real life glitch that nobody has fixed yet. She's gotten this far, and nobody has stopped her. Tsukiko wants to know why. Why is she here. _Why_ is she even thinking about such an altering decision?

Tsukiko doesn't want to be like this. She doesn't want to be the one to fix things, save millions of lives because of her interference. Her morality doesn't constitute that, she doesn't care if people die. It's the way of life, and she doesn't want to stop that.

But it's so hard to be this lonely again, it's so hard to see something that she had with Kyoko then with Hatsumomo happen with Madara and Hashirama. She's jealous. She wants what they have, the steady life they have where they can easily predict whats to happen next. Tsukiko wants it all.

Still… she's taken her own route. Tsukiko wants her honor, her revenge. She doesn't want this trepidation, this stupid isolation. Yet, the roads she's taken, the ones that many people have traveled and died on, she can easily change them. Sure, it will be hard, sure she will regret it and miss the thrill of the kill or enjoy the struggle to live, but she wants what she's lost. She wants it back so desperately.

Digressing at the situation at hand, she stops her pacing, stops her racing mind, and lets the chakra flow through her. Her bones mold beneath her flesh, and she produces her staff. Blood covers it with a thick layer of fluorescent pink and globs of red and sanguine. It's slippery for her to handle, so she takes her time to vigorously rub everything off, turning her normally pale palms pink.

* * *

Tsukiko readies herself into the basic stance, legs spread apart and staff tucked between her right elbow and her rib cage. She knows what she's doing, she knows where she's going, and she's confident in everything she can do. With a huff, she flips sides, from her right to her left, and then eases back to where she began, making sure that her form is steady.

Next, she twirls the staff in her hands and readies her stance again, this time her left leg more forward in front of the right, knees slightly bent. The water splashes around the stones, slopping in and then out, and she uses this to form her own combo, twirling the staff in her hand while moving her arms with the flow. She dances with what she's got, the water and the earth, the clouds and the sky. Tsukiko does this for a good hour and a half, the sun higher than before.

Moving further down the river, she finds a handful of rocks in the middle, with no possible way to get there without getting wet. Not too keen on getting her clothes wet yet, Tsukiko settles with tossing rocks at them. She doesn't even try to skip them yet, slightly concerned that she's getting too attached to something that she has only met for a good half hour yesterday.

This is something that she's not good at. Showing her interest, or her desire for friendship. But who gives a fuck? She does, and maybe Madara and Hashirama when they realize how weird she is.

* * *

At noon, she spends her time hunting. A rather fat rabbit catches her attention down the cliff almost a mile west of the river, but Tsukiko would rather not break her neck trying to get it. Instead, she shoots it, leaves it there to rot, and scampers off to find another victim. A half mile somewhere from the cliff lies a small pond, and she uses her staff to stab a few of them. This doesn't help her much, as the holes she left were so large she couldn't eat many of them.

She left them there to rot.

A few hours after those incidents, she sets off to the east side of the river, taking good care to not get herself wet although she does get damp from the river spray. There, on the other side, has more deer tracks and more torn and eaten foliage. She manages to catch and kill a doe, although she does spot a young fawn still as a tree next to a bush.

Tsukiko takes the dead doe and the living fawn with her back to the river.

There, she manages to strip the doe of most its skin and lay it out to dry in the now baking sun. She doesn't have much forest or hunting smarts, but she has a decent idea of what she wants. Even if this could end badly. The fawn only stands there where Tsukiko has placed it, blinking stiffly every so often.

It takes too long for Tsukiko to gut it's mother, though. Eventually, the noon sun begins to fall, and she hears some rustling from the other side of the river. She looks up from her current situation, and sees a weary Hashirama eyeing her.

She smiles broadly, trying to hide the fakeness from him. "Hi, there! Didn't think I'd see you again."

"I thought you would have left too..." He answers, his hesitance clear on his face. "Is that- is the baby dead too?"

Tsukiko hums curiously, playing fake at what he's asking. "Oh, this thing?" She picks the fawn up and brings it closer to her, playing with it like one would a doll, "No, I felt that it would be a waste to kill something so young, especially after killing its mother. I may not have the best morals, but I know when I should give mercy."

"You seem to be very sure about yourself," he comments from across the river, voice echoing off of whatever rocks there is.

"I have been taught to be sure of myself, otherwise..." I could die, I could be taken advantage of, "otherwise I won't get to see my goals through. I am very adamant about getting my goals in life to be completed."

"What were your goals again? I think I remember you saying something about taking care of your family?"

She laughs. "My family is dead. To me and literally. I need to take care of people, but they're not my family. Never my family."

Hashirama lets out a wavery whimper. Tsukiko's lips pull into a smirk then, although she does force it down when she drops her head to stuff her bone dagger between the joints in the neck of her doe. "You seem very... blunt. Like my brother. And my father. And everyone else in my cl- in my family."

Tsukiko grabs her fawn from underneath its arms and places it a few feet further from where it was before and begins to wrangle the head off of the deer. It's a bloody and exhausting process, but it gets the job done. "If I'm blunt, you should see the rest of my family. Only the bluntest of the blunt is living." She shakes off the blood, grimacing.

"Oh," Hashirama mutters, and Tsukiko almost didn't hear him.

"Come closer. Cross the river," Tsukiko instructs, beckoning him closer.

"But-"

"Don't but me," she says firmly, "Come closer, or are you waiting for Madara?"

"I am waiting for Madara," he squeaks, and clasps his hands together in worry or anxiety, "But I don't know why you would want me over there. Do you need help?"

She snickers. "Yes, I need your help with taking this thing off. No, I can't hear you."

"W-What?"

"I can't hear you."

"But I hear you?"

"I've got bad ears."

"B-b-"

"Don't 'but' me. Come here, I can't hear you." Tsukiko finally finishes taking the head of the deer off, and the neck cracks and pops. She tosses it into the river, then cursing herself for not taking the tongue out. "I'm doing something right now, and I can't hear you between all of this breaking and squelching."

"That's _blood_!" Hashirama frets, his voice louder than before and carries well over the river this time. "How can you do something like that?"

"I can do this because I've been doing this for a long time." She tosses the purple liver out too into the river. "And because I'm hungry."

Hashirama gags, but doesn't throw up. Tsukiko chortles.

"Once you've been alone in the wilderness like I have, this is something you'll get used to real quick."

"And if you don't? If you don't get used to it?"

"Then," she sighs, "you'll be food for whatever crosses your dead body. Now, come over here, I want to talk to you."

He flounders around for a moment before finding his stance and folding his arms across his chest. "I'm waiting for Madara."

Tsukiko hums, taking her eyes off of her work to look at Hashirama. "That's fair."

It's silent for a long moment, and Tsukiko is at that point where she tears off the remaining skin of the doe. She's fucking horrible, she'll admit. She doesn't even know where to hold the knife to get a clean cut. Hashirama, suddenly losing his nerve, plops down to sit on the ground, holding his head in his hands.

Another moment passes, and Tsukiko just tears off the last chunk of fur. She can feel someone approaching from behind Hashirama and glances beneath her eyelashes. A dark shadow flickers behind a tree, but she can see the somewhat familiar hairstyle of Madara.

"What is she still doing around here?" He asks lowly, voice so quiet Tsukiko almost didn't hear it, and nearly scares Hashirama out of his skin. The poor boy leaps about three feet to his left with a shout of surprise.

"Oh, she- she needs a place-or an area or whatever she- she does-to stay, she's like, resting or whatever," Hashirama mutters, viciously rubbing at his face, "She's just tryin'a feed herself right now. She doesn't seem so good at it."

"Hey," she calls out, attracting the eyes of both of the boys, "I haven't done this in a while, give me a break."

"That-"

"Is atrocious, I know. I usually stick to, ya know, cannibalism, eating it raw and bloody-the way I like it-or don't eat at all." She digs her finger into the muscles of the animal, and pulls it from the bone. "But I guess I could go back to my pre-injury lifestyle and be the cause of my friend's death, eat the people I killed in a blinded rage, and not be able to handle to be in the sunlight for longer than an hour. That kind of stuff."

"You've killed people?" Hashirama gasps.

Tsukiko chuckles. "Out here it's eat or be eaten, child."

"I'm n-"

"Why would you say something like that?"

Snorting at the back of her throat, she pulls away from her unfinished project and wipes her bloody hand on her thighs, smearing it on her monochrome yukata. "That's a good question. Usually, I would say 'because I can' or 'because it's true', but I'm sure you'd want a story. My scars also should say enough."

Madara turns his head to look at the still sitting Hashirama and mumbles something to him. "Why do you have those scars?" He finally asks.

"I have these scars because we were being stupid and reckless." She only says, a wide smile blooming on her face. There's a sadness to it, she hopes that they see, and it only makes her heart pull from her chest, "Because I was in a rage and I didn't want to see her hurt. It would've been different if I listened. But I thought I was more in mind and more in soul and in body, so I took the reigns.

She sucks in a breath and chortles, shaking her head and shaking away all of those memories.

( _He only swats her away like a broken fly. Damaged, she is, but deadly. He doesn't see her recoil from the ground, leaping at him from the back as he looks at Kyoko. White hair is loose from his quarl with Chikako, his white hair is down and she uses it to expose his neck and cup the other side of his jaw. He doesn't last long, long and thin bones sprout from her wrists and dig themselves into his soft neck. Soft and so easy to penetrate, soft and so easy to kill. Kill. **KILL**_ )

"Whatever you do, don't listen to me. Never listen to me. I'm a lunatic, I've hurt friends before. I want your friendship, but I don't want your trust. Never give me that, and you'll be fine." It hurts to say that. She wants to be trusted. She wants someone to lean on her. But that last time that happened she died. They both died and now she's here.

They don't answer her, and Tsukiko can't bring herself to speak again. She's already said too much. They don't like her, and they'll scare her away. They'll tell her to leave and to never come back again.

So she speaks some more. "It's dark here, and so cold." She knows this will never get her far, not to them, but she's jumping leagues to say this. "It's the night and only the beginning."

( _Their bodies burn like magma to her cold hands. They are red, glistening and still leaking like broken pipes. She can see their life fade from their eyes, their eyes are dark and so is their hair, but she doesn't care. She can't care, because she is a ghost to them, only white and elusive. She's there, then she's not. One of them loses their throat, another their hand, another is gutted like a pig. It never ends, there are too many and she fights blindly and there are too many she steps on dead bodies-oh god is that Kyoko-she bleeds and she burns but she makes sure they bleed and they burn_ )

She shakes her head again, shaking those chilling images from her mind. "The only reason why I'm still sitting here is that I like the security of water. I've never had this before. If you want me to leave, then say the word."

It's silent for a long time, but Madara is the one to speak again.

"That's some… issues you've got there," he eyes her wearily, but she can't blame him. She would do the same if she was given a chance to look at herself.

"You looked so sad and so hungry for attention," Hashirama speaks this time, now standing. His voice is soft, and she struggles to hear him, "No wonder why you've stayed and waited for us."

 _Waited like a dog would its master,_ she thinks to herself, _waited like she has waited for the day she finds those people who did this to her_.

"I have my issues, but I can promise you that they won't hurt anyone," she finally says, "I can promise you that they won't hurt me or you or anyone here."

"Okay," Madara offers, tugging at the hems of his shirt, "So you're lonely, you've got some really messed up past, and you want our-correct me if I'm wrong-friendship?"

"I mean, it could be worse," Tsukiko suggests with a shrug.

"I want to give her a chance," Hashirama puts in, "she's been through a lot and she doesn't look like she'll hurt-"

"Hurt us?" Madara turns to his friend, disbelief written all over his face, and the gestures to Tsukiko, "She's gutting a deer in front of you! She's not even trying to do it right! This is just some powerplay so she'll scare u into being her friends and then she'll get into our homes and rob us blind!"

Hashirama stands too and gives Madara a worried look, "She's only doing that because she's got nowhere else to go!"

"Then why doesn't she find an inn to stay at, there's got to be villages around here somewhere, Madara sneers, then skulks away from Hashirama and moves upstream. "I don't care what you do, but I'm not going to stay here any longer."

"Madara…"

Madara only huffs and quickens his pace.

Hashirama mumbles something and Tsukiko can't hear him.

"I should- I should probably get going," she says, striding to where the little fawn is and tucks it underneath her arm, "I'm not hungry. I'll clean up when I stop by tonight."

"Where do you go?" Hashirama speaks loud enough that she can hear, and she can tell that there's a strain in his voice.

"Pardon?"

"Where do you go when you sleep? When the weather gets bad?"

"I-" she hesitates, and all within good reason, "I just deal with it. It's nothing new, trust me."

He nods his head, "Do you- do you travel with anyone else? Do you have anyone to talk to?"

Tsukiko gestures to the fawn. "I've got this thing now. It's something different because I know that I can't travel well without someone. Kyoko… Kyoko died, I don't know when-I haven't kept track-but I had her when we left. It was hard, but it was harder to deal with her death. I didn't handle it well."

"You left…? Left where?"

"I don't enjoy on divulging my stories to people I won't see again."

"Then let's meet up again! I don't care what Madara says, you've been through a lot and I- I know what it's like. I don't know what it's like to do it alone, but I know what it's like to lose people. Many people. Please, at least come back. It's hard to do this alone."

She only looks down. "The markings on my face only tell what I can become. The scars tell what I've seen. I have many stories to tell. I'll come back."

The sky is still bright above her, and birds chirp and dance in the wind, but their voices are only enhanced by the silence rattling in her mind. She leaves the river, only carrying the clothes on her back the bone dagger and staff tucked to the sides of her obi, and a fawn underneath her arm.

* * *

She regrets leaving behind that doe at the river, her stomach clenches and gurgles, but Tsukiko can't ease it like she would want to. There are roots and leaves and bugs, but she can't bring herself to do it, not remembering what's good and what's not. It's painful to keep on doing this, but she keeps moving. Keeps on moving.

The thought of dropping the fawn has crossed her mind, but she already feels too attached. Maybe later will she find herself willing to kill the damned thing, but right now it serves as a terrified stuffed animal.

The sun sinks into reds and oranges, smearing across the sky like blood. Blues dance behind her and the sprinkles of the stars promise a clear night. The temperature drops, and it becomes misty. Dew begins to collect at the tips of leaves, dampening the bark and the air, making it too stuffy for Tsukiko to breath.

Almost half an hour of walking, she finds herself a pond. It's a small thing, but the water is a clear blue that would make any social media starlet jealous, and a large but dead pine sits at the middle, large roots spiraling and tangling itself within the water.

Tsukiko can sense someone but she doesn't feel threatened by it. So she starts to strip, dumping her clothes and weapons and fawn tucked between two roots of a tree. The water is bitter cold, and chills her to the bone, yet she continues on none the less. The water ripples as she walks deeper, and it only reaches her knees at the deepest point. She's tucked between two thick roots, and can feel the remaining warmth of them from the day.

It's still good enough for her, though. So she sits down in it, and the water now reaches just above her breasts. Tsukiko glances quickly to where the fawn is, and sees it nibbling on her clothes. Her hands ripple through the water slowly, and she watches the small waves break from the edges of the roots of the tree.

The person she senses before seems to notice her, and she realizes that the person is in the tree, somewhere above her. Tsukiko looks up, and sees a dark and small shape hastily dart to the other side, slipping off of the branch and plummets towards the ground. She snorts although she remains still.

The child rises with a grunt, and she can see the blue themed clothing. He landed on the other side of the root where she sits, and he only looks to be about her age, maybe even younger. He spots her, and turns red. Not as red as Hashirama, though, but more of an 'oh shit I'm in trouble' kind of red.

"I-I didn't mean to be spying," He says curtly, voice high and shaking, "I swear, I'm not a pervert."

Tsukiko waves her hand in dismission. "Don't worry 'bout it. Worse things have happened to me." She only realizes how bad that sounds after it leaves her lips. She just leaves it be and continues on, "At least it wasn't like I wasn't aware of you before I entered the pond."

"You were- you could _sense_ me?"

She shrugs with a hum, "Well, I'm not blind. I could feel you, but I didn't know where until I sat down. I'm shit at sensory, though, so I don't feel bad about it."

The boy looks at her with observing eyes, "Why is your hair white? Are you a Senju? I know that they get some wild hair colors every so often."

"Am I a what now? Sorry kid, but I came straight out of the mist. I'm not too keen on politics, either, so if you've got beef with this Senju group or whatever, I can't care."

"You came from the mist…?" He mutters, black eyes looking away. His long hair is spiked and full of body, and Tsukiko feels slightly jealous. She sit here with greasy ass white hair that hasn't been properly washed in years, while he sits there like he knows how to take care of his hair and himself.

Tsukiko sneers, "I wasn't _born_ from it. I had a mother and father too, but shit happens."

He hesitates, his mouth open but no words leaving him. He takes his time in formulating his next words. "You said you _had_ a mother and father, what happened to them?"

"Getting bold, are you?" She snorts, and stands from where she sat, and watches as his face reddens some more and he glances away, "And it's getting kind of dark, too, you should probably scamper back home before someone misses you."

"I'm out here with my father's permission, he told me to stay out as long as I want."

"And why would he say that? You in trouble or some shit?"

The boy hesitates, and looks back at her seemingly ignoring her nudity, "It's my brother actually. He's been- he's been acting weird and my father wants to know why. He's too good, though, he always manages to lose me and get me lost."

Tsukiko smiles, "Are you lost right now?"

"I'm not!" He startles her with how loud he got, and she takes a step closer to the trunk of the tree. He looks sheepish, "I've never been here before, and the woods are so confusing-everything looks the same no matter where you go."

"Do you know your directions? Like north and east and that kind of shit?"

"You curse a lot for a woman."

She scoffs at that. "Just answer me, I might be of some help."

"Naked?"

"Even naked."

"Can't you put on some clothes at least? I can tell you where I live, but I don't want to explain… that." He gestures to her body.

"As long as I get your name. I believe it's rude to ask a woman to your home without offer your name first," She teased, a smirk covers her smile, "I'm Tsukiko."

"I- I'm Izuna."

"Cool, I'm going to get dressed, so in the meantime do whatever, I'm sure you want to get home quickly."

Once she's dressed and has her weapons tucked in her obi and fawn underneath her arm, she calls for Izuna. He approaches from the other side of the pond, biting his lip nervously. "What do you do for a living? Since you're alone and all, I was wondering…"

Tsukiko makes a noise at the back of her throat, a mix between a grunt and a growl, and she quickly finds something to say. She believes she's still proficient at making combs… "I make combs, but business hasn't been doing so well since I started moving around. It's hard to find villages that have the demographics I need to sell properly, although I have no troubles hunting and feeding myself."

Izuna nods his head, "And what about that? The baby deer?"

"Eh, I don't have plans for it right now. Now, let's get going before it gets too dark," Tsukiko says before gesturing to him. "I believe I asked if you know your directions?"

"I- uh- yes, yes I do."

Tsukiko nods her head, "Do you know what direction you were heading when you left home?"

Izuna side glances for a moment before answering, showing that he is thinking. "It was just before noon, and I was at the south gate."

"Then go north."

"But I didn't make a straight line."

"Then improvise. Do you remember going east or west?"

He mutters something incoherent under his breath. "I guess I went west, because I saw Ma- my brother go the direction too."

"Then go north then east. Or the other way around."

"Will you come with me?" Izuna asks, tilting his head.

She snorts, "Probably not. I thought about it some and thought that this father of yours probably wouldn't like me, especially if-you know-he sent you to track after your brother."

"But I'm good at that! That's the only thing I'm good at, everyone says so."

"Just head north then east, and if anyone says that you're good at that one thing, then they're pieces of shit, I'm sure that you're good at something at least," Tsukiko says, and brushes past him, looking at the sky and promptly making her way north. "If you need help, just follow me."

* * *

Once Izuna notices familiar landmarks, Tsukiko begins to conceal her chakra signature. She spots a handful of engraved Uchiha fans, and begins to feel weary.

"I think it's time I leave," She says, "I don't want to go too far into hostile territory."

"But I'm sure my father would award you for helping me, he's harsh, I know that, but he gives back what is owed."

Tsukiko heaves a sigh. "I don't- I can't go there."

"And why not?" He pressures her, and she doesn't know what else to say. "What's keeping from this place? I can tell you're on edge, like you know you're not supposed to be here? Are you really not a Senju or are you a liar?"

"I can't go there because…" _quick_ , think of something, _quick, quick quick_ , _don't_ let him know what you do, _don't_ let him know anything, "Because I can't." She pushed tears to her eyes and manages to get her heart to increase, reddening her face and her hands begin to shake, "The dead can't go where the living was born. I can't go because I carry many regrets that prevent me- that won't allow me to return home."

Izuna gives her a skeptical look, his eyes roaming her and she feels her heart truly race in fear. He whines out something and backs away. "But- _how_?"

She straightens her stance, and 'tries' her best to push away her emotions. She believes the Uchiha's were the most paranoid clan outside of the white-eyed ones, the Huuga or something. "I have been betrayed and betrayed, and I can't rest until I get my honor and my revenge. I seek one to help me, but I can't find them. They're lost, and I don't want to wait any longer. I can't wait any longer."

"W-w-why can't you wait?" Worry is scratched into his voice, and she can tell he is startled by this and believes her so whole-heartedly. So ignorant, her mind inputs, and something inside cackles devilishly.

The lie slips easily from her lips. "The sun will rise soon, and I can't bear to see it again. I am a child of the night, forever and always. I am the embodiment of lost honor and broken trust. I can't like longer without her beside me, with their souls beneath my feet, with their minds crying out for mercy as I give them nothing but promise them something."

He tries to speak again, but she senses someone coming and she's almost too late to shimie herself further from the distracted boy and speed away with her enhanced legs.

* * *

Tsukiko tries her best to ignore as many things as possible the next few days. She doesn't eat, but does try to make sure the fawn-of which she's come to call Oyu, even if she's greatly unsure of its gender-does get a balanced diet of leaves and other soft shrubberies. It's hard to keep up with lies, but she makes sure to go over them and what she said in case she meets Izuna again or they might come in handy. The sun rises and the sun falls, with the moon following suit. The weather is bland, nothing new and nothing different.

She is sick of this normalcy, she wants the excitement back, she wants something to do, _something_ to keep her moving to keep her from a standstill and something to entertain her. She wants to fight someone.

So she goes seeking for one, hoping for bandits or strays, anything she can get her grubby hands on. She slays whatever she comes across, mindful of the fawn in her hands but she makes sure that the weasels and the birds and everything in between dies.  
There's a certain pride she cares for when she fights. It's the ultra-violence she experiences, the euphoria and the high she drags from the dumps. This is only a fraction of what she can do, though, this is only mere animals. Not the big game humans, the one's tiers above her and the ones who stare into her eyes. She's dragged herself from the dumps of her minds alone, and disregards the offers of help she's been offered.

It's something that she was born into.

A mangled dog crosses her path and growls at her, spreading its black lips to reveal chipped and dull yellow fangs. Saliva drips from its mouth, and there's a wild look to its eye that promises a fight. Any fight from an animal like this one is a small one to Tsukiko, and she knows how much raw and hot blood feels against her cold body. She loves this, as much as she hates the prospect of killing something without the intent of using it for food or something else.

She seeks the thrill, disregarding whats left of her morals.

Tsukiko only stops when she spots a large clearing, fallen trees rot where they rest, and the wind whistles between the branches. It's a stark contrast between the oaks spread here and there, with the occasional boulder or inlet of water. It looks dead, and when she looks down she sees that the soil is dead and dry. There is nothing here but the broken trees and the dead land.

Someone is speaking not too far where she stands, ambiguous voice almost muttering to themselves in a frustrated voice. She hears them say something about jutsu and failure to work. She doesn't hear much after that because the heat of chakra invades her blood and bones and a cold blade of a knife of some sort is pressed against her neck.

"Who are you and what are you doing here?" It shouts, and she feels like this is the kind of person that needs to be picked on. She doesn't hold herself back when she speaks to him.

"I'm here seeking someone to show me the way to my fucking life because I seemed to have lost it years ago somewhere in a place like this. I would ask for your help, but it seems that that stick in your ass has rendered you incompatible for any work.

"Wh-what?"

"You literally transported your silly ass over here. That's a dangerous move, boy, you don't know if you would have stopped in the middle of a tree and got yourself permanently stuck there. I'm not stupid. Not to mention that your move nearly sent me to an early grave, you were so loud I was sure that my mother could hear it, and I'm certain she's dead in the bogs."

When she gets to turn around though she gets the feeling that she's seen thing face before, and lets out a soft 'what the fuck'. White hair and red eyes glare at her, and she's certain that red eyes aren't a part of her bloodline.

She turns around fully to take in his appearance. He looked like he was some sort of scholar; practical clothing and a look in his eye that screams 'I am an educated person, don't touch me with your dirty hands you wrench'. She lets out a chortle. "Are you some sort of bastard?"

* * *

 _I made it :) It's midnight where I am, but it's something._

 _ **Word count is 6,147** , as told by 's document system._

 _I appreciate all of the comments, I feel that they boost my productivity in the project of mine! Feel free to comment anything, I'll even suggest a keysmash because I enjoy it when others enjoy my works and then I'll feel loved and will work even harder for the quality of the chapters._

 _I want to focus more on the plot devices than the word count, so there might be a drop in how many words there are in a chapter, but I don't know how drastic it will be. I do have everything planned_ until _chapter 20 or 21, but these may change. I am also pondering on straying from Canon and moving towards more of an AU, but that is still being pushed around a little._


	15. Seeking Insults but Finding Loss

Tsukiko is not amused by the choking noises he makes, nor the anserine face that he pulls, but she is amused by the way his hands clench by his sides, fall limp, rises to make some sort of 'what the fuck' gesture, then fall back to his clenched hands. She growls something incongnitable, even to her own ears, and snaps her teeth at the boy like an angry dog.

"Not only are you a bastard, you don't seem to even stand basic…" She trails off after that, eyes caught by a screeching bird and mind trapped in an uncertain cycle. What is the language they speak? She shakes her head and sees him backing away slowly. "Hey, don't leave. I'm not done yet."

"You're crazy," he spits out.

"That I may be, but that shouldn't disregard the fact that you're being an ass to me," she comes back to him, a sneer blooming on her face. "Maybe I should just get this over with. Do you wanna fight me? 'Cause it's been a while since I had a good knock out with someone. I'm not sure if you're even a good fighter, but it's a try."

His face twists, and he sputters something out.

"What, are you recountering your premature assessment of me? Are you realizing that I am not one to fight because it would throw you into the wrong limelight?"

"There would be nothing more pleasing than to see you bleed, but what would I gain from it when you don't even seem to know where you are. Do you even know who you are?"

Tsukiko laughs dryly. "I wish I didn't know who I was. That would have made things so much better for this body of mine," She glances down while she punches at her hips, a small grimace blooming on her face. "But I do know all of the selves that I've had. I do know myself."

The boy's eyes widen for a moment eyebrows rising with them, then they fall and he scrutinizes her. Tsukiko twists her tongue around her teeth, and then sticks it out at him, her face resting. She wiggles it once, then twice, then sticks it out further.

He takes a step back, eyes stuck on her tongue.

"See somethin' you like, hun?"

"What is your name."

"Oh, so you can tell all of your friends that the local whore's come to town?" She sneers, feeling that her emotions are swinging too wildly. She should get that checked.

"I am Tobirama, that is as much as I can tell you."

Tsukiko hums, and looks away. So this is the infamous Tobirama…. He's bigger than what she thought he would be.

"And I am…" she breaks away for a moment. Out here, how many people does she want to know her name, her true name. She believes that her clan is after her, because a missing kekki genkai can be dangerous, and she doesn't know why she didn't think this before. Too many names leads to confusion, and that's what she wants, right? Well, right now doesn't seem like the right time anyhow. "The name's Tsukiko."

The boy acknowledges her words with a hum, and moves around her and strides towards a clear patch of land with a cluster of papers strewn in the middle, most likely done by Tobirama. She frowns, and realizes that he turned his back to her. So many options she has right now, but she ignores them. What use would a dead child like this one be to her? The worse is that Hashirama will get too depressed to even see Madara. The worse that will happen is that Madara will slay the Senju clan without realizing that his dearest friend is one of them, and living a life not knowing where his friend went, or seeing his dead body one night after a grueling battle, not being able to understand who he is yet comprehending that his only friend is dead.

They don't seem like wanted events.

She digresses, though, and pushes on. "So," she continues, drawing out the word, "you were doing something before I came into the picture, need any help with it?"

"I need your help to leave me alone."

Tsukiko snorts. "Yea, I get that, but I have opted to not listen to you. Need tips, tits, tricks, anything that I can offer you have at your disposal."

That catches him off guard, and she cackles, watching his features twist into confusion and shock, before solidifying themselves back into a focused gaze. He crouches down to see the papers better, and her own face melts back into a monotonous stare. She wishes that she could laugh like that again. To see peoples comedic horror and disbelief. She likes that, and she would kill to do it again.

"I know that I shouldn't have said that, but I can't really bring myself to care." She starts, then her face relaxes and she glances down, mouth forming a straight line. "But I'd still like to help. I don't like helping others, but it's better than doing nothing for a few months. Or at least I find another hobby."

Tobirama huffs. "Yes. I guess. I would like you to… watch what I do. I'll have to tell you what my theories are, obviously, but I think that what I'm doing wrong resides in my focus. This means that you will have to be absolutely quiet, and listen to everything I say."

"There is nothing greater than to be placed in a position that I have rarely felt before. I appreciate your acceptance of my presence, but I know a lot more than you think."

"Good." the boy says, tilting his chin up and rotates his shoulder, and raises an arm to point Tsukiko where he wanted her. "I want you to stand right there. Hopefully, you will be able to see what I am… doing wrong."

Tsukiko only nods her head.

* * *

She's as quiet as she can be, which is probably the only good thing she can do. He told her about what he wants to achieve. Tsukiko tells him of what she knows, which he brings up is not much but still better than what he knows of. She feels so stupid around him, and she doesn't really like it; he's the worst teacher, at least Bisha-what's-his-name-sensei taught her some things about life. And he was the worst teacher she's ever had to look at. Tobirama would go on and on how the signs and hand gestures and such, and she would have to remind him again and again that she doesn't know shit.

The sun begins to settle on top of the trees, and Tobirama doesn't notice it until she brings it up.

"I don't have to be back 'til supper, but my… it's been pushed later and later. We can stop after a few tries. Well, unless you have other places to be." Tobirama says, and Tsukiko snorts.

"I wish I had a place to be right now, but my place is wherever life takes me at the moment."

"I like to... believe there are better places to be than home. Especially right now, but I don't know about your conditions and frankly I don't wanna care."

"Ooo, it seems you've finally decided to come out of that shell of yours. Too bad its when it's time for the living to fall and the dead to rise." Tsukiko says, settling herself down on the ground. Crossing her legs, she looks up at Tobirama, "Why are you running away from your problems? The way you speak to me is like you expect me to be something that I am not. Like I'll hurt you if you misplace something, say something wrong. Emotional, probably, but that's not for me to say."

He shifts his weight on his feet, "I am wasting my time with you." He says sharply before pivoting on his heel, his back now to her. "You can't help something that already is getting its help. If you want to be cryptic, then so will I."

Tsukiko bares her teeth at him. She doesn't feel herself, and she wants to change that. She doesn't like this feeling, this movement in her head and this ache in her gut, this wasteland of her imagination, whatever else she can call it. That doesn't seem to matter to him, and Tsukiko understands. But nobody understands.

She knows that she can't blame him for not understanding, for not seeing what she's giving him, still this will collapse on top of her and she will have no one else to dig her out. Tsukiko knows that she's dug her grave already, but she has also made her bed. Guess which one she'd rather go into.

"If you're not gonna waste your precious time on me, then why begin this game of mine?" Her words are like venom, the type that boils at the skin and peels at the bone. "The world is a game, but not my words. Take that bullshit that you gave me and send that to your precious father, I'm sure he'd love to hear what he's raised you."

"Y-You know nothing of my-"

"I know that he does not care for your lives, that he has seen the beaten and the bloodied bodies of his babies. I know that what he cares for is his reputation, and nothing more. He expects the world from you and your brothers, but when you do not deliver you are worth less than the dirt at his feet."

She feels dirty saying that to him, but she knows she must. He is but a child, only a few years younger than she. Tsukiko has never had a good reputation with any of her fathers, the one in her first life and the one in this. Now that she thinks about it, she really hated her mothers as well, the shouting and the poor life decisions that left the family in shambles and despair.

Tobirama's face is flushed pink with anger, and Tsukiko can see him clenching his teeth. His controlled breath and hands fisted at his sides does nothing but amuse Tsukiko. She can practically hear his heart racing from this distance.

"It seems that we share similar lives than I thought." It's a lie, she knows, but he doesn't have to. Her memory is fragmented, but she still remembers some things.

"You're not making any sense." He growls out at her, his voice heavy with distraught and temper.

"It doesn't have to make sense. It has to get the point across." Her words are clipped and short, and she drags a hand across her throat. "Or make a point."

Tobirama takes a step back. "What kind of point?" He asks.

"The point that it's bedtime for you. Shoo, go home a rest and have dreams of whatever you children dream of."

His face falls, and he bites the side of his cheek. "You are not my mother."

Tsukiko rolls her eyes, hands now grasping at the dry dirt and pulling, rocking her body side to side. "I never said I was."

"Is this some sort of fantasy to you? To-to tell me about my life then to claim that it's actually yours then to do this? What's wrong with you?" His voice cracks in the middle somewhere, yet he continues. "And-and what about the part where you called me a bastard? I am not a bastard! Just because I don't look like the rest of my cl- of my family doesn't mean anything, just because I am different doesn't mean anything!

And I don't need your help, I never needed it and I could've done it on my own, you only hindered my progress and claimed that you helped me because you feel like you're not doing enough in your own life because you always wanted what I have- a family. You want a family, but yours are just the way you described my father; never caring and always putting you down because of a more potential sibling. My family isn't like that! They'll never be like that!"

At this point, Tsukiko doesn't know what to say. She doesn't know what she wanted by doing what she did, but she got whatever this is, and now she has to fix it. Assuming she wants to be left on good terms with Tobirama, who has ties to many people. People who could hurt her.

So, without regard to what she's doing, she laughs. Her thoughts race, but her body remains relaxed, and her face in a tight smile. "Bold words for a bold boy." She only says before rising to his level. Tsukiko sniffles a little, her lips in a tight but rather genuine smile, and turns around. "But I am no longer amused. I don't need presence here like it was before… this, but I bid you a farewell, and may we meet again." She bends down to pick up the fawn and tucks it under an arm before walking past him.

* * *

The night is cold, but it's always like this. It has always been like this. Tsukiko can't really pinpoint where she started acting the way she has, especially around those damned boys, but she hopes that this is a phase, that she will get over it. Breaking a habit is not so much painful as it is breaking a limb.

Those two analogies are on par for Tsukiko, yet she's never broken a bone before. The previous life she was either too agile or lucky, and this life she literally can't.

A grim thought passes by, and her eyes scrunch and lips tighten. Could this be how she acted… before? Before her death, or what she had turned herself into?

Tsukiko refuses to believe that she was molded by the many sensei she had, or even between the few years she'd shared with her mother. The notion that she's grown is obvious to even the most senile person, even to herself, but she can't accept that what happened down there was not her. She likes stabbing things, she liked to scale the tall trees and to dance on the water. She enjoys the thrill of the fear and the adrenaline and the intoxicating rush of power and speed and the wildness of her limbs and mind.

She can't remember what she liked to do before. She knows it was tame; books, most likely, and maybe drawing.

In an ideal world, she would remember. In an ideal mind, she wouldn't have to think about it.

But there isn't an ideal world. She'll forever be caught in this web of blood and bones, in this pool of broken dreams and what she has thrown away. Tsukiko is a fool. She was a fool once, and this is her second time. Maybe there will be a third time, and that will be her last, but she doubts that.

Tsukiko lies underneath a canopy of leaves, their shadows dappling her pale body against the dark soil. Digging her hands underneath the first layer of loose and grainy mud, her jaw tightening and her heart skipping a beat.

Maybe it wouldn't be so bad to make her demise come closer. It's not like she's had anything keep her here; they've all died already. Chikako is dead. Kyoko is… dead.

 _It's pathetic_. Something whispers behind an ear. _They're only two people, and there's only two people. Before, you've had so, so many friends. But they'd never cared for you like Chikako, like Kyoko. They never had to see you in the light like those two have._

 _In the end, they will remain in their shallow graves._

 _You can't even remember them, can you? The way they'd smile when you'd crack a joke, or when they'd console you after a bad day. You can't remember anything of what your original friends were. Maybe they're the reason why you're here, in the filth where you belong. They don't deserve you, they're better than that._

* * *

It's two days before she moves again, her stomach empty and her mind elsewhere. The world twists and turns when she only moves to her side to roll herself up from the ground, and even then her feet don't know where to go. She's lost the fawn yesterday, but she can't find herself caring at the moment.

The sun is setting again, Tsukiko notes with a passing thought. If she stays, she'll feel worse in the morning, but there's nothing to say about her current predicament.

Narrowing her gaze and attempting to focus her balance, Tsukiko stumbles throughout the forest, breathing labored and strained. Her mouth is dry, and she's seeing double, but nothing's going to stop her from her destination. For a moment she looks down and sees a smooth rock, one of which blurs blindingly before deciding to approach her face. Her arms take up most of the damage, and she doesn't bang up her head, but the pins and needles that flash on her forearms before dissipating alarms her a little.

Her hands wrap around themselves before she begins to worms herself up again, her knees dragging against the soft ground, and the hems of her yukata tearing further. Tsukiko presses her tongue against the back of her teeth, and tears one hand off the other, one grasping the girth of a tree and the other to hold her head.

If she can't get through this, then how did she get through everything else.

Leaving that thought behind, Tsukiko brings one foot ahead of the other, and repeats.

* * *

Instead of the nice, _nice_ teeth staining rabbit or squirrel meat, Tsukiko forces herself to eat some questionable greens. Leaves, mostly, but also bark or stem or roots or whatever. It makes her stomach gurgle and hiss in indignation, but she can't force herself to hunt anything again.

The blood on her hands slowly fade away, but it still finds its ways in between her fingernails, underneath the creases of her hands. She doesn't bother at this point, but it really upsets her.

Her mouth is always dry now, no matter how much water she drinks, no matter what she eats no matter how much she does anything to fix it. Her heart is always racing, no matter how much she sleeps. Her hands are always stiff and cold, no matter how far between her legs she digs them.

She is so cold, and there is nothing she can do about it.

The stream churns softly by her ear, and she just sits there. Initially, she wanted to bath, but now every bone in her body wants to sit and stare. Her joints ache, and she wants to move to relieve the pains, yet she sits still. Someone has been perched far behind her for some time now, but she doesn't do anything about it.

She breaths in, and out. In. Out. Her tongue sucks on one of her teeth, and her eyes close a little. She sighs a little.

"You haven't moved in a long time, miss." Izuna squeaks out from somewhere behind her. "Are you alright?"

"I suppose I am." She mumbles.

Izuna creeps out from behind and settles by her side. "That's never an answer."

"It is when you have lived the life I have." Confessing something has never been in her limelight, not even in the life before all of this shit.

"I just wanted to thank you," Izuna says, "For that time you helped me."

She doesn't answer.

"I told my cousin about you." He says curtly, "He said that you were a spirit, and that I should send my thanks to you the next time we celebrate anything. I would have told my brother or father, but they're too deep into the war to believe in that kind of stuff anymore."

"Oh?" She hums, "At least you have someone to talk about me."

Izuna sputters, "I-I would like to know why you still haunt this place? Is there something keeping you here?"

"I guess," She barely whispers, "There's this one person I'm looking for. He is not a nice man."

"I can help you! The clan can help you!" Izuna says, "There is this old policy that we have to help whatever souls we find, and I know that it's outdated but the Uchiha don't want to have to deal with spirits in our land. Whoever this man is I'm sure I can find him for you."

She lets out a short laugh, and palms the side of her face. "You don't have to do that, Izuna-kun, I'm just taking my time dealing with... with what he did to us."

He narrows his eyes. "There's more of you?"

"There was."

"What... What happened to them?"

Tsukiko sniffles, "The man got to her. I made a promise under my honor to make him understand what I felt, what I had to go through."

"Who is this man?" He asks, and she turns around to look at him.

"I don't know," she admits, "But I still remember the way he looked, the way his men dressed and the way they smelled. It wasn't a good time for me back then, I wasn't in the right mind. I had too much to think about and too little time."

"Hey," Izuna croons, "I'll help. I'm good at helping people. I like it."

"You don't have to do it."

"I want to, it's the right thing to do after you helped me." He grabs something from the inside of his blue yukata and presents the stick to her, "Ikamaru said that the first step is meditation. That the mind must be cleansed of all negative thoughts. Do you want to join me? He didn't say whether or not that the spirit should join or not, but I wanna make this fun."

She has no reason to say no. Nodding her head, she lets him stick the incense in the ground and use a fire jutsu to light the tip on fire and lets it live long enough for it to smolder.

He folds his legs beneath him, and she changes the way she sits to mimic him.

It's been so long since she last mediated like this, it's almost nice.

Breath in…

Breath out.

Of course, she could do this on her own. She liked doing this in the past before she died.

How did she die, though? How long has it been since that day?

It doesn't matter, she decides. She's living right now, there is no use living in the past. There is no use that she'll get out of that. Reminitions of the past are what makes her, her, and if she lets it take control of the now she'll never change.

Breath in.

Hold it...

Out…

This world is not one where she can remain, where she can stand and be like already finished clay. She'll break if she does that. She'd shatter and turn to dust and be forgotten as another takes her place.

She has to be the untouched clay, raw from the riverbanks and clean to use, to adapt and form.

Maybe when she's bigger she can solidify her stance in this world. Maybe when she's bigger she can be something better than the last time. Show them what she can do, what she knows.

But she's unknown in this world of wars.

She was given a rough start. She was given this golden opportunity to shove her image into the creation of one of the greatest thing anybody has done in this world, to make her face something known, to be feared and to be honored.

Tsukiko doesn't want that. What she wants is not isolation, nor fame and fury and everything in between.

She wants friends. Someone who'll be there for her.

Breath in.

Hold...

Out...

Someone who'll take her in as she is, and what she will do.

Someone who understands what she's been through.

She wants Kyoko.

Kyoko; a name she hasn't thought about in a long time since now. It was a mistake confronting those men. Those murderers. If she'd listen to Kyoko she would be here with a boy who thinks her as a dead person, with the knowledge that those boys from the past days are actual goddamn characters in a fictional setting that she read on her spare time.

There had been discord for a long time before she met Kyoko, before her birth and before her death. It had split what she knew, isolated herself from her family and friends and all of those she held close. She had been in recovering when she was born again, trying and trying to reconnect to those she'd realized weren't the toxic ones.

Breath in...

Hold it...

and out again...

It was only the toxic ones that came. They came like bees to sugar. They'd pester her and pester her until she'd really cut off ties with them.

Some friends had understood. They were the only true ones she'd ever connected with.

She wants that to happen again. To have people connect with her, even if their relationship is shaky. Because that is the way things are now, she has this power that is not seen beyond the reaches of her clansmen, because she knows what will happen(even if it's so far into the future, but she doesn't care about that. She cares about her own life).

Tsukiko knows she can adapt to almost any place, anywhere. She can't plan for shit, but her foretelling skills are on point, especially considering her history with, well, history. She may be in a new body with new skills, but that won't stop her from her justice, from Kyoko's justice.

Obviously, she needs to get stronger, maybe a tad bit smarter too, to be honest, but that can wait a little. Food is a good place to start, her flesh clings to her bones as if she is nothing more than that and the only thing keeping her together is the shikotsumyaku.

Her stomach rolls at the thought. She's never been like this before, so thin and brittle yet so strong. She has a hand in pre-combat; no one wants to fight someone who looks like they've never seen a lick of sunlight and food before. No one wants to fight a wild and scrappy dog, untamed to the world of civility and unused to taboo and restraint.

Breath in…

Hold…

Out.

Scowling, she opens her eyes. "I think you have company, Izuna-kun."

His head jerks up to look at her, "What?"

"I should go."

"Hey! No, no, please, we still have to finish this so you'll move on," he starts, and she can hear the honesty in his voice, "I can help you with finding him, I swear, this was just to clear our minds and to help you remember better, please-"

"Listen, I can understand the good intentions and shit, but I'd rather not meet new people like this." She rises from her place in the ground. "I'll see you soon, Izuna-kun."

"Ts-Tsukiko-san!"

She is quick to leave the place, and even quicker to silence her steps as much as she possibly could. She knew that someone was there, she just didn't know who. She hopes, and prays, that it's not someone she already knows. She knows the chances of that are mostly uncertain, but she also knows it's probably higher than she'd like, to be honest.

But she's been doing this for far too long already. It's time for her to do something a little more productive, more endorsive of this world and this new body and almost blank slate. She thinks she was a carpenter when she was still alive. Something that used her hands far too often. Something that left bruises if she didn't pay attention.

Maybe, when her heart calms down, she can do something like that again.

* * *

She figures that she can't hold a blade without seeing crimson silk on her hands. She's never killed anyone with a blade, though. She doesn't know why it has to be this way.

It's made of her bone, the curved edge dipping sweetly into the grip. It has a finger grove, she didn't think about the guard when she was creating this, but it's not meant for stabbing. It's for whittling.

It's only after she scrubs her hands red and raw that she figures she can make things not using wood, but her bones instead. She's done something like that before, in the caverns where she had literally nothing else to do than to sleep and 'train'. It comes to her like a god-given vision, it's clarity almost like she's reliving it again, and she can see Kyoko again.

Her heart still aches for her.

Sniffling, she pushes those memories away, and cards her fingers through her hair. Things buy faster when they're simple, nothing too extravagant or made with obvious talent. Sure, she could sell them for a higher price, but what does she know of prices? She's yet to find a damn village as of yet for fuck's sake.

First things first, find a village. Then mass produce combs, maybe little trinkets like engraved bone shards, figurines of animals, so on and so forth. Then that will leave her with money, currency. She guesses she could use some fresh clothes, good food for both her and her little doe.

And it should be noted that she hasn't had many interactions with anyone else in a rather long time, her time spent on surviving the wild, keeping herself fed and occupied. She would have made herself a little hut if she wasn't so against having something so small and constricting when she could be with the trees.

She supposes that maybe her social anxiety could kick up again after the transactions, or maybe after she scouts a village. It's been so long, especially after Hatsumomo and Kakuzu and everyone else, and she should take more precautions about what she's about to do.

But fuck it. She's got nothing left, they're not really gonna care about what she does behind the screen, well, bushes, she supposes. But it still stands. What is she supposed to do in a time like this? She can't sleep it away, she's too restless for that.

She's got too much to do now that everything's been sorted.

* * *

 ** _Word count 5,276_**

 _So, it's been like what, six, seven months since the last time i updated? lol_

 _well, i'll be moving this work over to AO3, i like the systems there a little better than ffn, not to mention the staff there work a lil faster than this place does. My user name's Pinnacle of Failure(fuu4fuu), and _Of Broken Wings and Fractured Flight _will be renamed and remastered as_ I have broken my bones and torn out my eyes _. This time around it'll actually make some sense, considering where she's been in the flesh bag thats called Tsukiko, more blood and fighting, and there will be an actual culture down in the caves instead of whatever the fuck lil ole me did the first two times around lmao. its chapters are also gonna be fixed a little, so it woulndt take 10 chapters and 70k words til an actual somewhat main canon character came along._

 _It's been fun here for the few years ive been around, I really love the constant comments I get when i update, but sometimes moving is better than staying in one place :P_


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